The calendar shows the date, 2104. The great Solisian-Proximan war ended a long time ago, but it's never been able t
o escape those who partook in the harsh fighting.
    Mari lays against the hospital bed, attached to several machines. She's been staring against the wall again, a new
nurse is next to her - monitoring her vitals. Mari chuckles a bit, "I never could escape machines," she stammered.
    "Again?" the nurse asks, due to not paying attention - reading her chart.
    Mari clears her voice, "I said I never could escape machines. I served in the Proximan mechanoid corp," she said.
    "Oh, thank you for your service, ma'am." The nurse said nervously, still reading her chart. An old woman, almost
	64 years of age.
    
    Mari fixes her stance to be sitting up on the bed, "I've been stuck to hospital trips and beds ever since I left the
corp." Mari smiles a bit, "The doctors say I'm lucky to be alive," she said, before sighing, "too lucky to be alive. I g
uess the military's ''safe mental interface'' wasn't so safe afterall!" she laughed aloud. The nurse awkwardly laughing w
ith her.

    "Did they make you take any drugs?" The nurse nervously asked, "I heard in the mechanoid divisions, they had to ease
your mind in before you could interface. I saw that in a movie."
    Mari stayed quiet for a few seconds, almost as if she had blanked out.
    "Hello?" the nurse asked toward Mari, trying to get her attention.
    Mari blinked twice, before jumping a bit. Her heartrate spiked during that jump, and she looked a bit scared. "Uh, w
hat was your question?" she stammered, "Oh, right. Uh, yeah. Unfortunately."
    The nurse at this point was already very concerned for her, "Are you okay? I can call Doctor Nitz if you-"
    "No, no. No need." Mari snapped quickly at the nurse.

    "As I was saying," Mari said, "they unfortunately did make us take a lot of inhibitors to ease us into the process. 
I had a friend, let's call him Yue. Now, Yue was a bit of a teetotaler, and didn't take the drugs during training."
    The nurse nodded, still monitoring her vitals, but also paying attention to her. "What happened to Yue?"
    "Straight or sugar?"
    
    The nurse looked at Mari curiously, "Uh..." she mumbled, "sugar?"
    Mari looked at the nurse before chuckling, "There's a reason why nowadays they put patients that require surgery und
er anesthetic. There's also a reason why they put pilots under the drugs before spiking into the interface."
    The nurse looked at her, concerned. "Oh..."
    
    "What did you guys do in the military, anyway?"
    "Lots of drops," Mari said. "A LOT of orbital drops. Usually, we were set on an orbital ship with drop pods. We woul
d spend a lot of our time in that orbital drop, but we would usually be ready to spike in within one minute and drop in
the second."
    The nurse nodded, noting a spike in her beats per minute. "That's... uh..." the nurse mumbled.
    "There was this one mission," the nurse watched her heartrate slowly increase the further she was speaking, "Just a 
simple drop. In and out, saving ground forces out of a sticky situation. Simple as. Four of us went in, and only one
left out. Alive."
    "I guess the drugs weren't enough," Mari trailed off.
    The nurse was stressed at her high heartrate, she reached to her pager and called for help.
    Mari stretched her hand out toward the nurse, waiting for her to hold it. As several other doctors bursted in through
the door, the nurse held Mari's hand, "You'll be okay, Mari."
    Mari mumbled, "I hope wherever I go, I'll see Nuel or Lukas or any of them... whether it be up there or down below."

                                                    author notes:
this takes place WAY into the future of novissime solis, like maybe 100 years after the events of NVS where standard inf
antry is fighting alongside mechs, but those mechs take a price on the pilot.

mari had survivors guilt, but i suck at writing and don't know how to storywrite a person with survivors guilt. probably
something i want to research in the future

"why is it called grandma"
i originally wanted to make a story about an old woman who partook as a mech pilot and told the story to her grandchildr
en. but she doesnt have grandchildren. the drugs fucked her up.

btw NVS takes place approx 2012-2018 (non-standard yearing)