At her superior’s orders, Alice obediently went to her own machine. Though she could not disobey her function to follow orders, she did notice the altercation between Eric and Ariana. He seemed to be taking the news as well as she thought she would, and Alice would have to talk to Ariana after her inspection. In her niche, rather than a standard team of engineers, she and her MAS were attended by technicians accustomed specially to her and her MAS, and the original engineers themselves kept a watchful eye. They did not speak directly with Alice, and did not waste any time with their work.
Before checking her MAS, the technicians checked the maintenance of her own android body. She held her arms up, moved her head and eyes, performed some stretches to confirm her flexibility. One technician handed her a simple, small metal cube, which was quickly warped and crushed under her fingers. Lastly, with a sharp metal tool, another technician scraped at an area of integument on her hand, removing a thin line of the skin-like covering and showing the matte ivory plate underneath. After a few seconds, it grew back and maintained the illusion of her appearance.
Before finishing, an engineer plugged a datapad into a data port at the base of her head. Alice’s pupils flashed a faintly glowing blue as a vast stream of data filled the pad. The engineer thoroughly examined the code before unplugging Alice from the pad and closing the jack.
Satisfied, the technicians moved on to the maintenance of her MAS. The stark white of her MAS’s metal was restored by repairs after the toils of each battle, and was not marred by the presence of tallies. Alice was among the few who did mark her MAS, though this was more at the behest of its engineers. She had found a way around it, and instead left her marks on her enemies' machines rather than her own, adding insult to injury. Either way, the White Rabbit’s mere presence on the battleground was a threat to her enemies.
Next, Alice climbed into the cockpit and started up her machine. Her body harmonized with her MAS’s, and its HUD integrated with her own entoptic interface. Her eyes shimmered from the light of the display as she ran diagnostics, inspecting all of the subsystems to verify their operation. Then she began to test her weapons. Careful not to hit anything, she tested her the cocking mechanism of her wrist-mounted shotguns by throwing a couple mock punches in the air. Then, two compartments on her shoulders opened up and a pair of cannons emerged before pivoting downward, the barrels pointed forward. A large crate was presented to her and opened, revealing her last and primary weapon: the M10-EX.
The Scorpion rifle was a experimental rifle created for Alice and the Eagle, combining kinetic and plasma weapon technology to create a formidable weapon. It was also built to take two different magazines carrying different types of ammunition, adding an element of versatility to the weapon. At longer distances, the barrel of the gun would extend and the firing mechanism slide forward to the heavy ammo magazine. The only modification to the rifle, as well as one of the few requests ever granted to Alice by her creators, was a blade she recovered from a Coalition MAS’s alloy combat knife welded to the end of the barrel as a bayonet.
“All systems operating at peak performance.”
After a quick test of the rifle’s modular transitions, it was placed back in it’s crate and Alice’s inspection was completely finished.
Alice stepped out of her cockpit and noticed Gerard walk past towards Ariana after his own inspection. She quickly caught up and followed beside him, going to Ariana where Ms. Nishizumi was reassuring her.
“Ms. Williams? Ms. Nishizumi is correct, I will be listening if you need or desire any assistance. And I must apologize for Mr. Astelion’s fit. Tori’s death has not been easy for many of us, least of all him...You are indeed one of the 7th now.”