🐺 ~PROJECT SAC-1~ ⚔️

Chapter 12 - Start of a Hellish Cycle 😓

(DAY 11 w/ THE BAD BATCH - EVENING)

Once again and to his vast frustration, Sergeant Hunter had failed to forewarn his new charge who was completely inexperienced with, well, basically everything that didn't involve battle tactics.

Yes, he had revealed to Talla that him and his brothers were also victims of that damned long-neck who tried excusing all of her terrible deeds with the phrase 'It's endurance training' as if it kept her dirty slate clean. But in reality, they were nothing more than torture sessions, which left behind physical damage of course but even deeper emotional and mental scars that could not be fixed with a bacta patch.

What he didn't do was warn Talla of these deep emotional and mental scars and their side effects, severe symptoms of what Tech discovered soon after they were freed from Nala Se's clutches: 'Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.' Ugly PTSD'S even uglier sibling and it was damn near impossible to handle in a healthy way without some form of professional help. He believed that they had this trauma disorder.

Well, being lowly clones only bred for warfare and clearly no insurance or money to pay for it, they didn't have any access to professional help, so their brainy brother Tech came to the rescue! The best he could, anyways.

After their symptoms first appeared soon after their deployment, and he saw the effects that unhealthy coping mechanisms had on their overall performance, Tech spent all his free time over the next couple of weeks holed up in his bunk of the Havoc Marauder I researching, researching, RESEARCHING their symptoms to discover what their condition specifically was and then after, the best skills that could help them cope with the trauma healthily, and filed away EVERY. SINGLE. DETAIL of what he had learned.

Then he implemented these skills into their lives, whether they liked it or not. Though it definitely became easier once the leader of the squad got on board with his scheme towards improved mental and emotional health that would, obviously, improve their performance on the battlefield. It wasn't near as effective as proper treatment would provide them, but it helped keep them stable and compared to what they were a year ago, being stable had done them a lot of good. Believe it or not, Wrecker didn't get that scar because he was clumsy with explosives - that was his area of expertise, after all - but being unstable had made him unintentionally so. Since then, no close calls of that severity had happened ever again because of mental strain. Sure here and there a blaster bolt got too close to the heart or a stab wound almost made the victim bleed out, but those accidents were no longer because of instability, just the touch of bad luck that came around every so often when they worked with regs.

Anyways, Hunter, who apparently couldn't think straight around Talla, did not warn her about any of the afflictions coming her way, or the ways to handle those fierce, hellish cycles... one of them being the horrifying night terrors.

Still recovering, her stamina was still pretty low and despite it being a new day Talla ended up dozing on the couch even with the booming holovids on, tucked away in the corner and curled up the best she could with her cybernetic leg sticking straight out on the cushions so the tender flesh and touchy synth-nerves wouldn't be aggravated by unnecessary movement. Even though it was an awkward position, like her fellow ship mates she had learned to sleep in the most undesirable locations, so an awkward positioning on a cushy couch wasn't exactly a hurdle she had to climb over, and the woman looked so peaceful as she drifted off into the dream world that Wrecker had even so thoughtfully turned down his holovids from ear-splitting to blaring.

But pleasant dreams could quickly turn into a living hell you couldn't escape until your mind said you could, a person in the midst of a night terror too dangerous to try and wake up, especially so with one who had enhanced strength.