Strapping In

“God, I'm exhausted,” Henry said as he slunk through the doorway.

“It's nearly noon, Playboy,” Winny said. “You still nursing that hangover?” She was already strapped into her rig and going through the warm-ups.

Their third teammate, Gopa, was just starting the safety checks on his rig. “Damn, Playboy. You know what happened last time you went in rigged and hungover. Lost our whole squad.”

Winny barked a laugh. “Maybe you should fall back on the joystick, dude. Pull yourself up a nice comfy chair.”

Henry rolled his eyes and started looking over his rig, slowly, carefully, just as he was trained. Probably a bit more 'slowly' than 'carefully' today, though. “You know I suck on the joystick, Macro,” he replied to Winny. “I barely scraped through certifying on it.”

“Truth!” Gopa said as he strapped on the haptic leg-pieces of his rig. “That was a sad, sad thing to watch.”

Winny threw a few punches, smiling in satisfaction at her unit's response. She got a good one today, probably the new shipment. “Well then grab yourself an espresso and hurry the hell up, then, Playboy. We drop in ten.”