Chapter 144: In Transit

Even though they were all off duty, there really was no escape from training. An hour or two at the gym every day, a little time in the Mecha simulators, racketball games against each other, there was always some sort of physical exercise to do.

Nobody wanted to lose too many credits to gambling on this voyage after all. They were going to a highly populated planet, with a four-star orbital station known for its luxurious accommodations, and that meant they would need pocket money when they arrived. Actually spending their salary was an uncommon luxury to the fleet-based military assets. What they needed in combat was provided, and most of their rest time would be at a military spaceport that didn't have anything worth buying.

Between watching over the unit and his own training schedule, Max managed to avoid getting bored for the entire first week. But then the lethargy started to set in and he knew that either more intensive training or a proper distraction was needed. He decided that training was in itself a proper distraction.

So, for this voyage, the Stalwart Special Tactics Unit started a new Mecha Combat league aboard Abraham Kepler. Not a new idea though, they had set up these combat tournaments before. The only difference was that this time the Fleet was watching them more closely, so they couldn't set up a betting pool on the matches and had to pretend that they were just friendly training exercises.

They had a lot of highly skilled Corvette Class Pilots to go with their Crusader Class Pilots, whereas most of the units on the ship did not. The Noctem Regiment had many more in total, but compared to the number of Line Mecha Pilots, their numbers were minuscule.

So, the League was born. Everyone fought in completely standard Line Mecha simulators, and everyone got the same weapons. A sword and an Ion Rifle. For many pilots this was very familiar, for others, the sword was an accessory that they had rarely used. But with everyone relegated to the same level, they could battle to their heart's content with the simulators linked and let the training program keep a ranking system for them. Nobody could complain that the others had an advantage other than their system and pure skill because every mecha was the exact same. To most, that made it even more interesting.

Some scheduled fights so that they could learn from an opponent, others challenged pilots who annoyed them, and others were just there to kill time between card games. But every simulator was soon busy, and the rankings were written on the wall boards in every training arena aboard the ship.

The fleet staff thought it was hilarious, especially after Max pointed out that the Hanger Bay staff were all required to be qualified on the Line Mecha. Sure, most of them had never been in combat, and they had only barely passed their exams, being removed from the Piloting program and shifted to a maintenance track, but they were qualified, which meant that they were allowed to use the training equipment and they could join the battles.

[Central Command, are you watching these battles?] The Admiral piloting Abraham Kepler asked the authorities that he is certain were monitoring the ship's training devices from one of the Command Planets near the Empire's core.

[Stupendous idea Fleet, though I'm certain it was actually the junior officers that got bored and instituted it themselves. We have recorded a number of outstanding prospects for advancement through the training so far.] Central Command confirmed.

"That Special Tactics Group though, they're something else." One of the security officers mutters, switching the screen in front of the Admiral to a scene where one Mecha is teaching thirty others close combat techniques at a speed that a Line Mecha shouldn't be capable of.

"Are they training their Corvette Class Pilots on Line Mecha?" The Admiral asks, looking closely at the scene.

"The Major insists that if they can't get a Line Mecha up to one hundred percent output there's no reason for them to use the more complex systems of the Corvette Class. It's an odd idea, but some of them are getting very close to the goal." The security officer confirms, munching popcorn as he watches the unit spar with each other and practice their sword forms.

"How much would changing Mecha change their combat effectiveness?" The admiral asks. He was never a Mecha Pilot, he went directly to the fleet academy once his Innate Talent for Interstellar Navigation was discovered.

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"With the same input speed, they should be about thirty percent more efficient due to the reduced lag time and larger size of the Corvette Class Mecha." The officer confirms as one of the more gifted students steps forward to challenge the instructor inside the melee training simulation.

"Which ones are those? They're all using default Mecha avatars, and I can't tell them apart." The Admiral complained, sitting back to watch the fight.

"That should be Lieutenant Wolfe challenging Major Max."

Those words had the crew bringing every secondary screen in the ship's bridge to the feed from the training match. If a pilot thought he was ready to challenge the Major, he should be able to make the Line Mecha move at its maximum control speed, so the fight would come down to talent and technique.

At first Lieutenant Wolfe thought he might stand a chance against Max in a firefight, moving behind one of the obstacles for cover and opening fire. Max only subtly shifted the torso of his Mecha to avoid serious damage while returning fire and the sensor head on the Lieutenant's Line Mecha was destroyed in a flash of sparks.

Without the primary sensors, there was no point in hiding anymore, the Line Mecha would just be torn apart. Fortunately, it has a small armored window in the front to improve visibility in exactly this situation, so Lieutenant Wolfe charged at Max, sword up and in the combat stance that they had been practicing. He had been doing extremely well at it, and his logs showed that he was pushing the maximum speed that the barebones Line Mecha was capable of, so he should stand a chance against Major Max, whose default spec Line Mecha couldn't move any faster than his own.

The two swords clashed with a whine of steel on steel and overloaded hydraulics. Max easily blocked the strike and pushed Lieutenant Wolfe back, firing two quick shots into the Mecha's torso to remind him that he did in fact have two hands and that ignoring the rifle just because you were close to your target was a fatal flaw.

The two mecha closed again, exchanging blows while Nico narrated for the rest of the unit who was watching the fight.

"You see how he's swinging wide to avoid having his blade intercepted mid-strike? That's costing him time, and at the peak of the Line Mecha's speed, it is making him unable to land a blow. Watch the small adjustments that Major Max is making. See how they put him in a position to block with minimal movement? That's the proper way to use what you have been learning." Nico's narration made it very clear to them where the Lieutenant was lacking, and the man himself could watch it back afterward to get her commentary and hints for self-improvement.

Max took it easy on him, giving everyone time to learn from his small mistakes which added up to a big advantage for Max. Eventually, the Line Mecha began to slow due to repeated damage and Max knew it was time to end the fight, using his rifle to knock aside a sword strike and piercing his blade through the cockpit of Lieutenant Wolfe's Mecha, resetting him to the starting area of the simulation.

"And that's how it's done. I expect you all will be able to do the same by the time we reach the space station and our vacation properly begins." Nico declared before encouraging the unit back to work.

[What a flawless style. Make sure you record that.] The order from Central Command was more than pointless, that battle had been recorded on dozens of devices all around the ship already. Nobody wanted to miss out on the 'Major Max Combat Hour' as they called it, where his executive officer narrated the challenges to help the pilots improve their technique. A few even thought to set it to upload to the streams, until they realized that it was a military training exercise and was, therefore, both confidential and security locked.

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