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Description
Jacket stifled another yawn as he sat in his roost, about fifteen meters above the forest floor. Climbing something like this was trivial for him, his augmented muscles and reflexes had helped propel him up the branches in less than twenty seconds. Granted, making sure that the branches could actually take his weight was another matter (as he had learned from previous unpleasant experiences) but it was a trick that he not only found effective at staying out of sight from patrols, but enjoyable. It was nice to get a sense of the forest from the canopy.

He was waiting for the last light of the day to go down when his commlink buzzed inside his head. Stosh needed to have a word about something. This wasn't on one of the official channels for the op though, so it must have been something informal.
"One hour to go time." Stosh said. "You're good Jacket?"
"Yep. Doing just fine." Jacket answered. "This isn't my first rodeo."
"Yeah yeah, I know. You seem pretty relaxed and everything."
Jacket raised an eyebrow at that. He raised his hand to his neck, slipping his fingers underneath the lip of his suit and felt the blood pumping beneath his fingers. "Checking my vitals are you?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah, it all looks green across the board. Heart rate, blood pressure, everything." Stosh answered.
"Good, I'm fine Stosh. I checked my gear several times getting here, you don't need to backseat drive me to the AO."
"Okay, yeah I understand." Stosh replied back, with a slight awkwardness to him. "Sorry, just...checking everything. Gotta make sure everything is working on both our ends."
"Well, you can be assured my augmentations aren't glitching out or anything." Jacket answered. "Dr Carmine gave me a clean bill of health."
"Good to hear." Stosh said.
The conversation had seemingly finished Jacket heard Stosh ask "You uh, doing okay?"
"How do you mean?"
"Like you psyched for this? Feeling like you're up for the mission and everything?"
"Seems like a strange thing to ask a guy who has come all the way out here into enemy territory."
There was another pause.
"Sorry it's just... my readings are telling me a lot, on my end. They're not always good at reading people is all."
For a moment Jacket considered telling Stosh that he could take his psyche eval 101 shtick somewhere else. The last time someone went inside his head (figuratively and cybernetically), it lead to nothing good. Then he relented, knowing that Stosh was still new to the whole handler thing and needed to be eased in himself.
"Stosh, just relax. You don't need to micro manage everything. I got this. Just keep an eye on the drone feeds and I'll handle the rest."
"Understood Jacket." Stosh answered. "You take care out there."

Jacket grunted in acknowledgement as he cut the channel. Underneath his fingers, he could feel his heart pump his blood throughout his body. His newer heart that is. The familiar beat was replaced with something else, a more constant vibration as the pump circulated blood at a constant speed. Even after all this time, its presence felt alien: like a buzzing insect within his chest. He put his hand back to his rifle. "Just give him time." he muttered to himself.

He would not admit it, not to many people, but deep down, he was never truly used to his new state of being half-man half-machine. His senses may have been honed to a level that allowed him to see the ants climb a neighboring tree, but part of him wondered if that was simply visual artifacts glitching out in his eyes. He had the strength of a gorilla packed within his arms, but it took awhile to not break things by accident when he picked them up. And he always swore that everything felt differently after armor fibres was woven into his skin.
Maybe it was all just his imagination, probably. But it ultimately didn't change the fact he felt like a stranger in his own skin. He was a strange being, much like this forest in a way. Sharp new technology of power and lightning built onto the foundations of nature. The outfit he had chosen along with Lynx certainly helped with the impression, but when Snorri went full on viking with his own get up, he found himself at ease with the idea of the old rebuilt into the new.

He looked to another branch in the forest. A pair of thrushes sang to each other. Jacket gave a small smile. It was nice to hear that not everything needed to be changed.

-----------------------------------------

Hey all! I figured I'd make Jacket again, this time chilling on top of a tree with a full head of hair and an overshirt. I have to admit, large chunks of my inspiration for him came from Connor from Assassins Creed 3. That game always had a weird place in my heart. Not necessarily the best game, but still tried to do some interesting things. In any case, I'm quite happy with the outcome here.

Description
Jacket stifled another yawn as he sat in his roost, about fifteen meters above the forest floor. Climbing something like this was trivial for him, his augmented muscles and reflexes had helped propel him up the branches in less than twenty seconds. Granted, making sure that the branches could actually take his weight was another matter (as he had learned from previous unpleasant experiences) but it was a trick that he not only found effective at staying out of sight from patrols, but enjoyable. It was nice to get a sense of the forest from the canopy.

He was waiting for the last light of the day to go down when his commlink buzzed inside his head. Stosh needed to have a word about something. This wasn't on one of the official channels for the op though, so it must have been something informal.
"One hour to go time." Stosh said. "You're good Jacket?"
"Yep. Doing just fine." Jacket answered. "This isn't my first rodeo."
"Yeah yeah, I know. You seem pretty relaxed and everything."
Jacket raised an eyebrow at that. He raised his hand to his neck, slipping his fingers underneath the lip of his suit and felt the blood pumping beneath his fingers. "Checking my vitals are you?" he asked.
"Oh, yeah, it all looks green across the board. Heart rate, blood pressure, everything." Stosh answered.
"Good, I'm fine Stosh. I checked my gear several times getting here, you don't need to backseat drive me to the AO."
"Okay, yeah I understand." Stosh replied back, with a slight awkwardness to him. "Sorry, just...checking everything. Gotta make sure everything is working on both our ends."
"Well, you can be assured my augmentations aren't glitching out or anything." Jacket answered. "Dr Carmine gave me a clean bill of health."
"Good to hear." Stosh said.
The conversation had seemingly finished Jacket heard Stosh ask "You uh, doing okay?"
"How do you mean?"
"Like you psyched for this? Feeling like you're up for the mission and everything?"
"Seems like a strange thing to ask a guy who has come all the way out here into enemy territory."
There was another pause.
"Sorry it's just... my readings are telling me a lot, on my end. They're not always good at reading people is all."
For a moment Jacket considered telling Stosh that he could take his psyche eval 101 shtick somewhere else. The last time someone went inside his head (figuratively and cybernetically), it lead to nothing good. Then he relented, knowing that Stosh was still new to the whole handler thing and needed to be eased in himself.
"Stosh, just relax. You don't need to micro manage everything. I got this. Just keep an eye on the drone feeds and I'll handle the rest."
"Understood Jacket." Stosh answered. "You take care out there."

Jacket grunted in acknowledgement as he cut the channel. Underneath his fingers, he could feel his heart pump his blood throughout his body. His newer heart that is. The familiar beat was replaced with something else, a more constant vibration as the pump circulated blood at a constant speed. Even after all this time, its presence felt alien: like a buzzing insect within his chest. He put his hand back to his rifle. "Just give him time." he muttered to himself.

He would not admit it, not to many people, but deep down, he was never truly used to his new state of being half-man half-machine. His senses may have been honed to a level that allowed him to see the ants climb a neighboring tree, but part of him wondered if that was simply visual artifacts glitching out in his eyes. He had the strength of a gorilla packed within his arms, but it took awhile to not break things by accident when he picked them up. And he always swore that everything felt differently after armor fibres was woven into his skin.
Maybe it was all just his imagination, probably. But it ultimately didn't change the fact he felt like a stranger in his own skin. He was a strange being, much like this forest in a way. Sharp new technology of power and lightning built onto the foundations of nature. The outfit he had chosen along with Lynx certainly helped with the impression, but when Snorri went full on viking with his own get up, he found himself at ease with the idea of the old rebuilt into the new.

He looked to another branch in the forest. A pair of thrushes sang to each other. Jacket gave a small smile. It was nice to hear that not everything needed to be changed.

-----------------------------------------

Hey all! I figured I'd make Jacket again, this time chilling on top of a tree with a full head of hair and an overshirt. I have to admit, large chunks of my inspiration for him came from Connor from Assassins Creed 3. That game always had a weird place in my heart. Not necessarily the best game, but still tried to do some interesting things. In any case, I'm quite happy with the outcome here.