Since we currently in the PEA lab, one of the currently unaligned units snatched the instructions from me and moved away. It was from behind me, but before I could turn to berate him for the petty theft, he said "I can do it. My hands don't tremble when holding a knife." I was still miffed, but it worked out. I said "Fine. I was going to do it on a first come first served basis anyway. While you're at it, I'll make you the clan medical officer. When any of our members needs medical care, you will be the one to provide it. Either we will send you out on the field, or we'll bring them here to you." He seemed pleased with it. He then began looking through all of the instructions with tremendous speed. They were cyborgs. Photographic memory was not going to phase me. "I understand what is needed." he told me. I nodded and said "You'll be doing the surgery 8 times. There are PEA unit patients waiting for you in each of the labs. Good luck." I was going to leave when I turned back to him. I had to first give him the upgrades. I also had to give him a name. He was an officer. Iota was not working here.
As he moved about, I could see that he was heavily bruised and scarred as well. Since he was wearing a hoodie, I said "Your name is now Hoods. Is that alright?" He did not seem to care one way or the other what he was called in the clan as long as he was a member. I told him to use the pods. "If my hands are not good enough, those bruises and scars are not either. Fix them." I ordered. He nodded and went over to the pods. He put in the settings before going in. When he came out, I saw he still had the scar across the bridge of his nose. I pointed it out to him. "I wanted to keep it. I think it make me look tougher." I just shrugged and lifted the hoodie. His stomach was toned and flat. No bruises or blemishes to be found. "I will be waiting in the clan building. You can tell me the results when you have finished all of them." I said. He nodded as he looked at Alpha and began to give him his final preparations for the surgery. It was going to be awhile. I wanted to be close by, so I chose the rock garden on the same level. I had to start charging 05-003 too. We needed to be able to make cards.
There was a charging station in each of the gardens. After dragging 05-003 over to the station along the ground, I plugged it directly into her chest port. Normally, AEPs could eat and drink for energy. I did not want to risk a big escape attempt. After 30 minutes, I pulled the plug. I could see him begining to writhe and flex muscles that they had not been able to in weeks. It was probably enough to get through the memory card making process. In the run up for this moment, I had all 8 of them watch the still hostile 05-003 nonstop while I was getting and reading the instructions. That was their 16th mission. Their chances of success rose to 7%. It was not much, but it was a start. At the end of the day, Hoods found me. He had changed his hoodie. He did not look well. He made to stand 6 feet from us. As he stood there, not speaking or moving, tension began to build. I felt a sense of dread just creeping over me until I could no longer stand it. "What the hell is it, Hood!?" I snapped at him. He held up the folder with instructions. "I am here to report the results of the surgeries." he said nervously.
Hoods
It certainly did not inspire any confidence in me. "Spit it out already! You're making me feel sick with that look on your face!" I yelled at him. He nodded and said "As the medical officer, it fell to me to perform all of the hardware installations. There were 4 critical successes, 1 success, 1 failure and 2 critical failures." I just looked at him blankly and asked what that meant. "With a critical success, the organs will be working 50% better than expected. The unit took to the hardware very well. A success is the standard expected result. A failure means that the procedure needs to be done again. It did not take properly. A critical failure means... that it cannot be undone." I demanded to know who was who. Hoods only sighed. "Alpha, critical success. Beta, critical fail. Gamma, fail. Delta, critical success. Epsilon, critical success. Zeta, critical fail. Eta, success. Theta, critical success." I was very upset. "How the hell were there 2 critical failures, Hoods!? You assured me your hands did not have tremors holding a knife." Hoods winced. "Cutting was not a problem. I... mixed a male and female part."
