>>5164694The woman hummed a short tune, resting a hand on your knee delicately. "Mortimer… You were pulled into the Fifth Layer, even with the Heavy suit on. I know that it can be hard to face, but the determining factor that kept you conscious wasn't the suit. I'm sure it helped but the others lack something you don't, the product of your training. They can only grow by experiencing and surviving events like these. I know, it is a dark and sad reality." She gave you another reassuring pat watching you further. The Theta Project had crafted you to weather such immense mental fatigue, they had made you only to suffer. It seemed that way to you.
She obviously knew you had more to ask. So you did. "What happened exactly? What started it? How did she pull us all down with her?" You let the words flow, each question prompting another. The tall woman pulled a chair over and sat down as the old woman took a long sip. "Now, only Pilot Anastasia can tell us what exactly caused her downward spiral. But I can tell you that the intricate details of a Phobos's nervous system and especially it's core are relatively unknown to us. Now obviously we have our own working theories on how they function, if only partially. Which all of the advancements we have made rely on. That being the assimilation of neurological patterns and such. But as you have experience first hand, there is a system that connects each core to one another. A bond that isn't shared between humans, well one that we don't believe we currently possess… Have you ever noticed that you could interpret what another pilot was doing? Feel them move? Hear words or ideas? If only briefly or faintly? Even though you had no way of contacting them. Initial linking binds our minds and the machine's together. But all Phobos share, so they can seemingly share what we give them. It isn't uncommon for the death of a pilot to set off a chain reaction among others. A reaction more violent than one would commonly expect. Whatever happened to her, it was shared across those linked within her vicinity. Instead of a berserk battle rage, you were shackled with mental trauma." The woman unloaded a lot of information, you had heard rumours that matched the words.
