Gruel.

That’s all it could be considered. She ate it because it gave her nutrition, but none of the food on Rubicon for a mercenary was particularly flavorful. She could feel the heat through the walls of the garage as the helicopter they were in traversed the ruined landscape. Her eyes were closed, shoes were off, and she held her ‘nutritional’ slurry in a cup in her hand. Most people ate it from a bowl, but she didn’t bother. Knocking her head back, the horrid tasting slop slid down her throat, and she finally opened her eyes. Just a peek, enough to see where she was aiming. Faye cocked her arm back, and threw the empty metal container over toward the computer on a catwalk nearby. It clanked to the ground, tumbling a little and spilling the last drops of slurry she hadn’t had the opportunity to enjoy.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had a job from Michigan,” A chipper voice came over a small headset she had in her left ear.

“Well, It’s been a while since he’s made an offer I liked,” Faye said as she stood up, her gray socks pressing into the bright blue torso of her Armored Core. She leaned against the unit’s head as she watched the catwalk slowly pull away, creaking back into position as the large pistons around Blue Coral’s shoulders began to whirr into place, “Fuck the PCA. This is personal.”

“Eee-hee,” Faye’s handler giggled over the comms, “We’re getting close enough to pick up on the Redgun’s chatter. Bring me back a souvenir this time, yeah?”

“How are you always so chipper, Claire?” Faye asked, slipping her right boot onto her foot and tying it down tight. A bit of turbulence threatened to knock her off her feet and send her tumbling multiple stories down, but she masterfully shifted her weight to keep that from happening.

“Money, Grease, Computers, and Money. Hop to it.”

“She’s got jokes,” Faye laughed, though the tone in her voice was purposefully dry.

She cut the feed to her headset momentarily as she slipped her foot into her left boot. This time though, it wasn’t as smooth. She felt something soft roll under the ball of her foot and twist. As she pulled her foot back out, that sensation graduated to a few snaps and pops. Holding her boot in one hand, she watched as something strange tumbled to the heel section. A bright blue tuft of hair attached to something. With a grumble, she turned her boot upside down and let it fall into her hand. It looked like a bit of fabric, something from a towel that may have had some plastic stuck to it. Not thinking much of it, she cocked her hand back the same as she did with her discarded cup, and got ready to throw.

Twitch

The thing moved! Instead of throwing it, she instinctively opened her hand. It rolled down her wrist and fell, smacking down onto the metal at her feet just as the helicopter hit another bit of turbulence. Faye shifted herself, one boot-clad foot clacking against the metal as her socked left foot settled on the other side of the thing. Then, she crouched and picked the little object up again. Dazed and aroused, Mathew dangled from his hair between her fingertips. He twitched every so often, coughing and sputtering slightly. She was about to speak up, ask questions about the diminutive little guy, but then she noticed his arousal. Her curiosity turned to a sharp spike of anger, before cooling off with a laugh, standing back up, and leaning against the head of her AC.

“I…” Mat started to speak, before she tossed him into the air and caught him in the same hand. He couldn’t say a word as her fingers fidgeted with him, grinding her thumb into his crotch like it was a toy. He gasped, squirming in pleasure.

“My lucky day,” She said, seemingly to herself as she contemplated what she wanted to do.

Her thumb relentlessly toyed with him, forcing him to squirm and writhe in her grip whether he liked it or not. Faye closed her eyes again, letting out a sigh. There was a massive sense of zen and control that washed her over. Part of her didn’t even think this was real, like the tiny was just a figment of her imagination. It wouldn’t be the first time augmented humans like herself had strange side effects. One of the reasons she became an AC pilot and entered into the eighth generation of augmentation was to feel what it was like to be a giant among others. This rush was something she’d only ever felt inside Blue Coral, especially when a fleeing AC pilot disappeared beneath her footfalls. Now, she could actually feel it. If he was a manifestation of her mind, he was a manifestation of that desire, to have control in such a literal way in a world where control was fleeting. She could hear Mathew moan in her grip, his squirming becoming more violent before a jolt of energy ran up her arm. Her own augmentations enhanced it, taking the pleasure Mathew offered others and honing it into something even better. She brought her hand out, looked to her palm, and smirked down to the quivering little one. Still aroused, now with glowing liquid dotting the tip of that arousal.

Without saying another word, she dropped him. He tumbled into the open maw of her boot. Mathew landed on his back and gasped for air, surrounded with the pungent heat and humidity of her footwear again. He looked back up to her as she looked down to her boot, before a transmission came through.

“Alright Faye, Michigan’s on the ground twelve miles east. Redguns started without us.”

“Typical,” Faye replied, “Just get us as close as you can, honeybun.”

Mathew watched her attention shift away from him almost immediately when she got that message. Her gray sock-clad toes slid over the opening as she gripped each side of her boot. He couldn’t get up, the floor shifted too much. Before he knew it, the light had faded completely. Pain from his broken arm had disappeared due to the adrenaline in his system as a wall of sweaty, humid fabric closed down on him. He could feel sweat push up around his back from her insole as the arch of her sock squeezed down on him from above. Entombed, he could hear the beat of her heart, along with a strange resonance from her augmentations. The sweat had a unique smell to it, something he couldn’t quite place. It was almost sweet, despite the conditions she lived in.

Crunch

A jolt of pressure broke dozens of his little bones as Faye moved toward a hatch underneath the ‘chin’ of her Armored Core. It was only a single step. Her heel lifted, bringing Mathew up with it as she crouched to open the machine. With a hiss, the head of the Armored Core began to lift revealing a cockpit seat below along with a helmet and other attachments that would connect to her body. Faye felt the snaps, she could feel Mathew’s shaking, quivering body beneath her sock. And she could also feel… His face, pressing in, like a kiss or something. His hands moving slightly, like a massage even in the pressure cooker that was her boot. It was cute, for a figment of her imagination. Exactly how she wanted him to act…

Faye slipped down into Blue Coral, strapping herself in and getting her helmet on. Her feet slid into place on either side of a main cockpit control, her arms rested on more controls that she naturally toyed with. Flipping switches with one hand, she reached up and pulled down the hatch above, sealing herself into her armored core as the heads up display flickered to life. Through the nature of how she was sitting, Mathew was pinned tight – but not being crushed. Not yet at least. She could feel him working, even his arousal as his hands gripped her sock, trying their best to knead into her skin… Or so she thought it was kneading, it could have been frantic attacks for all she knew.

The whole Armored Core shook, pulling her forward as her bun Handler’s voice came back over the radio.

“Any closer and their air defenses will get us. Michigan’s putting a lot of faith in you for this one, show the PCA why the Redguns pay you the big bucks.”

As the AC reached the rear hatch, robotic arms pulled her weaponry off four large racks along the way. In her right hand, the MA-E-210 ETSUJIN – a small rifle she kept along as a jack of all trades for the little targets. Left hand, the devastating 44-141 JVLN ALPHA, and latching into both shoulders was a twin set of VP-60LCS laser cannons from Arquebus. Each unit was secured, and she hit the rear of the vehicle. The hatch opened, extending her AC over the open sands and exposing her to the heat outside even more than before. She could feel herself cooking inside her own AC it seemed, and for her passenger, she could imagine how hot and horrid the inside of her boot would be.

“Good luck, Faye,” Claire said, just as the latches opened and allowed Blue Coral to fall to the ground.

Faye couldn’t feel it much, the machine she was in helped cancel out the G Forces as she plummeted to the ground. Thrusters slowed her descent enough as she moved herself to land on a sand dune. It was a hard landing, but not anything that would damage her unit.

“Main System: Activating Combat Mode.” She heard her computer say as the HUD in front of her filled with data…

The mission had begun…

Later

He clung to life, just barely. Hours ago, Mathew had been crushed to the point where he couldn’t do anything other than twitch and exist. There was nothing here but heat and pain, his body was in abject agony as Faye’s feet shifted relentlessly to pilot Blue Coral. He had no concept of time, he couldn’t see, all he could do was feel and smell. It felt like he was being cooked alive. Her movements had brought him to the cusp of climax on multiple occasions, but never quite over it. Edged inadvertently, the tiny, mostly flat being felt like grime. Faye had forgotten him, she enjoyed feeling him crunch and break, but the mission was the important thing… Down to her last mag, Faye watched through her heads up display as the PCA’s machine sparked towards her. It was a tough fight to get here, and now she was facing down what could be her end. A flaming, glowing blade swung towards her as she barely dodged out of the way, her booster sputtering out as Blue Coral’s feet slid across the sand. Both shoulders began to glow, she took a firm stance, and blasted.

“I know it looks tough,” Claire said over the comms, “But you’ve been through worse.”

The PCA’s machine sputtered. It was damaged too, both having had a long fight against each other. Blue Coral slid to the side, bullets rang from her gun before the final magazine was expended and she threw it aside. Out of ammo for everything now, aside from a few more charges on her shoulders.

“Sure,” Faye said, sweat drenching her forehead as it spun towards her with another slash.

It was fast, aggressive, and she was on the ropes. She dodged, slipping behind it to a sweet spot to get a punch in. Blue Coral’s fist slammed into the beast of a robotic creature, damaging it to the point where it stumbled and nearly fell. She pushed her attack, another smash of Blue Coral’s fist and the beast was felled. Reversing her AC, the boosters went off just as it exploded. A bubble shield came over her, shielding her from the blast that would have otherwise taken her life. With smoldering anti-aircraft canons on the horizon, this PCA base had been obliterated, and whatever that thing was – was dead… She took a few staggering steps toward the machine, punching it again and again until she carved a hole into it to reveal the pilot inside.

“Come… Here…” Faye said gasping as the enemy pilot weakly struggled against her AC’s fingers. She pulled him free. He was injured, far more than she was, but the explosive barrier the PCA built in to protect him and spared his life, “You deserve this, you fuck.”

She let him fall to the ground, several stories onto his back. The pilot struggled, coughing and squirming in agony as his arm reached up. He disappeared beneath Blue Coral’s foot. She couldn’t see him, she couldn’t feel him crush, but she knew he was gone… Lights flickered on overhead a few minutes later as Claire’s helicopter came to hover over her. Faye was exhausted, piloting it back up to the safe clutches of their mobile garage. A few buttons pressed on a sparking control console between her legs, and she let the garage’s automated systems do the rest. Disarming what remained of her weapons, Blue Coral moved back to its storage space. A close call, but they were alive.

“Yahah!” Claire squeaked as she ran along the catwalk, kicking Faye’s breakfast cup over the edge as she went to the screen nearby… “I knew you could do it, you’re the best!”

“I’m going to sleep,” Faye said as she pulled herself out of the cockpit, “If I don’t wake up in like, fifteen hours, come check up on me.”

The next morning.

Sweat had long dried. Faye wiped herself down as much as she could to clean up but it wasn’t great, she was still in the same outfit she had the day before. She hadn’t even taken her boots off to sleep, having exhausted herself after an 18 hour mission fighting the PCA the day before. Stiff and sore, she wandered down the catwalk toward the computer her handler was standing at. She sat down on a crate of repair supplies, cracking off her right boot and tossing it aside as Claire turned around with a cup of coffee in hand. Synthetic coffee, something the bunny woman enjoyed quite a lot.

“Payment’s in!” She said happily, “Redguns even gave us bonus for the PCA grunts we killed.”

“Did you find your souvenir?” Faye asked, crossing her left leg over her right. She peeled off her boot and tossed it aside too, completely having forgotten about Mathew’s existence as Claire laughed. She nodded, leaning against her machine.

“Splat,” is all she said about the pilot which was still jammed into the bottom of Blue Coral’s foot, “So, Arquebus got ahold of me and asked if you could meet up with V.IV for a quick sortie tonight. Less lucrative, but I know you two work well together. V.VIII Pater has a brief for you if you’re up for it later.”

“Sure. For now, let’s just fuckin’ relax…”