"Oof," Sean grimaced, seeing Louis getting his insides churned by the centrifuge, covering his mouth with his hands. This is the second round of centrifuge training, after all of the 20 cadets had one go and now, they are having a second round, following targeted lessons from the Mecha pilots and astronauts.
Louis' face is squashed into an unrecognisable meat pile.
The centrifuge came to a halt. Louis gasped wildly as the doors opened.
"Biometrics?" asked Xiao Tian.
"Normal. Spooked out," replied Singh, removing his spectacles to clean. "Though the kid is about to puke all over himself."
Standing across the cadets and hearing Singh's report in her headset, Maia sneered under her breath.
Louis staggered out of the centrifuge room, dazed. It was not long before his shaky legs gave way and he fell, Sean immediately caught Louis.
Ariel then stepped out of the other centrifuge, staggering back to the cadets. Seeing her in such a state Phineas subconsciously moved to Ariel, wanting to help her, only for Maia to stop him. Phineas looked at Nanami, who shook her head. Resigning, Phineas stepped back, knowing that his relationship to her now is no longer friends at this setting and time.
A while later, Giorgio dashed out of his centrifuge, having hit the emergency stop button, running to the washroom nearby, and soon the wretched sound of someone throwing up can be heard.
Meanwhile, Carl exited his centrifuge looking alright, if one ignore the stammer in his hand.
After all the remaining cadets passed the second centrifuge test and recovered, the cadets are then ushered out, marching to another room. The huge metal doors are 30m high, which opened with a loud clang. The cadets stepped in, and the doors closed with a loud "thud" behind them.
The room is pitch black. Louis raised his hands, the white sections on his skin cannot be seen at all, not to mention the black parts of his skin which already camouflaged itself into the light less environment. Sean looked around, not able to see anyone despite being able to hear them. Carl who is standing close to Sean generated a fireball in his hands, keeping it small. Sean and the rest of the cadets followed suit, generating small balls of flames, acting like little lanterns.
Of course, to ensure that these flames do not become fire hazards, the cadets all deliberately kept their flames as small as possible, carefully controlling the input of Cosmic Energy. Hence, the light from the little orange balls in their hands is just enough to light up the surrounding areas and allow them to see each other.
Xiao Tian clapped his hands, and soon a binding white light shone, then more and more lights shined down on the cadets, bit by bit, lighting up the room like daylight. The cadets all extinguished the balls of flames in their hands, looking in awe at the sights that behold them, some of their jaws wide opened.
Rows and rows of Mechas stood in front of them, those in the first row are unarmed, painted white, having black 3-digit recognition numbers on them, with marks of wear and use visible on the paint job. These 13m tall Mechas' heads are expression-less, instead appearing as a smooth, white angular slab, with a square cockpit visor in the middle, giving it a mono-eyed robotic aesthetic.
"This is the T-01 training Mecha, the first step for all Mecha pilots," introduced Xiao Tian.
He then pointed to the second row, which feature 16m tall Mechas. These Mechas are painted in a navy-blue colour scheme, coupled with grey accents. The head design is more human-like, featuring a V-shaped cockpit visor. All of them are armed with different weapons and different accessories. On their shoulders there is an insignia marker that looks like a bright diamond, signalling that these Mechas are from the Diamond Detachment, the Mecha unit assigned to Gagarin Base.
"These are the MA-1800 series," introduced Xiao Tian. "Mark 5s, currently UNSSD's backbone in Mecha operations. As you can see, there are different variants designed for different purposes- the standard MA-1810, MA-1820A for AEW&C operations, MA-1820H for heavy weapons, MA-1830R for recon, and MA-1850E for electronic warfare."
"As for the other models, like the MA-1870C Commando variant, they will have to wait, unfortunately, same applies to the Mark 6s which are still being rolled out," said Xiao Tian. As if on cue, a Mecha is rolled in, stunning the cadets.
This Mecha is crimson red and black in colour. Its cockpit visor is too a V-shaped one, but it looks more human-like as opposed to those of the MS-1800s, resembling more like the combat visor of a knight's helmet than that of a robot's head. It has a huge set of "wings" that housed additional repulsion lifts and 2 heavy fusion cannons, similar to the ones deployed on the Einstein-class.
"Wow," Louis exclaimed.
Sean is shocked to see it here, as this was the unit that was being sent for maintenance on the day he first reported at the Hokkaido factory.
"Crimson Dragon…" he muttered, it's the name of this Mark 6, the original prototype, MA-1900X.
A surprised Albert and Vera turned to him. "You know the name of this Mecha? Only hero units or units with commemorative value are allowed to be named by their pilots," exclaimed Vera.
"So, this is the Dragon, Lieutenant Colonel Zhou's Mecha," said Albert, surprising Sean. He did not know this, having only overhead the name of this unit from the workers back in Hokkaido.
Xiao Tian extended his hands to the now even more hyped-up cadets. "Now, so do you want to experience tearing apart Deep Dwellers and doing duels in space?" he asked.
"SIR, YES, SIR!" yelled the cadets in unison.
The instructors then led the cadets to another room, where they saw Mecha pilot seats clamped to the floor. On these seats are Drive-suits, the full body bodysuit used to achieve neural handshake with the Mechas to pilot them using their minds, and an AR helmet.
A soft but audible groan escaped the cadets. They know what these are: AR simulators, not the real deal, not even the T-01s.
Herbert sneered. "Of course, we are not going to let you all actually get catapulted to Space on your first try! That will be so irresponsible of us!"
The cadets sighed, moving to a seat. Sean wore the Drive-suit and put on the helmet, and soon an extremely realistic rendition of a T-01's cockpit appeared in his eyes, and he is looking out to Space, about to be put on to an electromagnetic catapult to be launched out.
He looked at the familiar yet foreign controls around him, recounting the variant of MA-1870C he had piloted before, the MA-1870AC. The second "A" has a double meaning, standing for both "Aggressive" and "Artemis".
The fusion reactors of the Mechas powered on, forming a blue aura underneath the white plates.
"Neural handshake initiated."
A tingling sensation enveloped his body, with a metallic taste in his mouth. These AR helmets do more than just simulate the Mecha's controls and the environment, but also uses non-invasive brainwave simulators to allow the cadets to feel like as if they are really piloting a Mecha.
That means that the G-forces they will experience when actually piloting a Mecha will also be felt. Finally, if they make a mistake and destroyed their simulated T-01s, they better also eject in time in the simulation, otherwise they too, will feel as if they were really killed, either by being burned to ashes or exposed to the cold vacuum of Space.
"Successful. Begin configuration."
Sean moved his hands as per the instructions laid out by the system AI. The giant robot hands of the Mecha moved along, albeit slower. Sean shook his fingers, the fingers of the Mecha moving along.
In the simulation, Sean's T-01 is then moved forward on a guided rail to the "launch" platform. The Mecha is then pulled up into a launch room, locked onto the electromagnetic catapult to launch out the Mechas into space, together with the rest of the T-01s piloted by the cadets
A different Mecha appeared at the front of these T-01s. Its Nanami in a simulation of her MA-1870AC, call-sign "AC-3". The "A" variant is distinguishable from standard MA-1870Cs by red and orange colour plates among the black and grey colour scheme.
"Stats report," said Xiao Tian.
"Cadets' moods seem excited and nervous," replied Singh. "Except for 3 of them, numbers 23, 100 and 9."
Herbert laughed. "Then let's add a little terror on them."
"Deploy!"
The Mechas are accelerated downwards out of the station, the repulsion jet engines in the Mechas's lower back and legs, used to travel in space are activated, sending out blue flames.
"AHHHH!" the cadets all screamed, caught off guard by the acceleration of the electromagnetic catapult, soon hitting 9Gs. Despite being a simulation, it cannot feel more real. The equipment in the cockpit shuddered and rattled. The cadets would have been thrown into the ceiling and smashed into paste if not for the anti-G function of the drive suit and the cables holding them down firmly into the floor of the cockpit, which relays their brain waves to the central processor of the Mecha that then controls the limbs. The other automated equipment is all controlled by AI systems, and the pilots can control these AI using the holographic touch screen interface in front of them.
Ariel focused her thoughts, using to neural control link to move the Mecha forward in space. If one were to observe how she thinks she is moving, the T-01 is like a graceful ballerina.
But if one were to really observe her T-01 Mecha from the outside, her Mecha looks like a puppet being controlled by a person with both arms fractured, as it swayed about in space like a piece of leaf on a windy autumn night. All the cadets are struggling not to collide into each other.
Well, with the exception of Sean and Clara. Sean is slowly yet surely recovering his latent skills, like re-learning how to ride a bicycle. The same applies for Clara, after all, she was on the track to be a dedicated Mecha pilot when she enrolled 6 years ago, changing to Special Forces later in her career. She is already qualified to use the MA-1830R.
Fortunately for the cadets, the AI on T-01 units has an added "coach" function, which automatically locks the Mecha down and take over with autopilot if it calculates that the chances of an accident go beyond a certain threshold, or if activated by the cadets.
That does not mean that the instructors are going to go any easier on them as they flew in formation. Quite the opposite, the instructors are yelling at them with the vilest vocabulary and fiercest tones they can think of.
Nanami's simulated AC-3 acted as flight leader, while the other simulated Mechas followed behind them. The rest of the instructors are looking at the simulation on a screen.
"Follow my instructions and that of your screens!" ordered Nanami.
Sean, Carl and Louis flew right behind Nanami.
Louis started to stray away.
"Number 42!" roared Franz. "Nanami just said goodbye."
Louis struggled, trying to get his Mecha back to formation.
"Look at number 23 and number 9 sticking to AC-3 like superglue!" roared Franz. "Then look at you, number 42! HOW THE F*** DID YOU STRAY SO FAR OFF?! YOU MIGHT AS WELL FLY TO THE SUN!"
"Sorry Sir, number 42 pursuing!" replied Louis.
"YOU GOT IT WRONG MORON!" snapped Franz. "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE LET HER FLY OFF IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Louis adjusted, shifting it back into position.
Little did Franz know that his blood pressure is about to see an even higher spike.