Chapter 37: Pushing For Promotions

"Just to verify my own sanity, are you telling us we'll be graduating early and learning to pilot Crusaders?" Ibanez asks and Colonel Marino begins to laugh.

"Yes Cadet. Once we get to our destination, you will be Field Promoted to an Officer Rank befitting your skills. If you can qualify in the Crusaders, that will be Captain, right from the start of your careers. But first you need to qualify."

That's enough motivation for all four Cadets to rush to their simulators and familiarize themselves with the cockpit layouts. They're all standard designs, the Kepler Military default, though Crusader Class controls can be customized to the pilots, who will usually spend the remainder of their career in the same Mecha.

Max is already very well acquainted with this setup, and lovingly runs his fingers over the controls, feeling them in person for the very first time. Sure, it's not an actual Mecha, but the simulator's control panel is made from the real Mecha's cockpit parts.

Unlike the Line and Corvette Class simulators, the Crusaders and their simulators have a neural link, allowing pilots to control partially with their thoughts, and increasing their overall capabilities. Max slips the helmet on and gets a message from his system.

[Unit Optimized]

[Selecting Optimal Pattern]

[New System Ability Unlocked: Multi Point Targeting]

Max isn't entirely sure what that means, but once the Virtual Reality simulator comes online he can see the change right in front of his eyes. There are rows of moving Mecha in front of him in the simulated course, waiting for him to begin his run. He doesn't have his heads up display active, but focusing on any one of them gives him a targeting box in two colors.

Max tries focusing on more than one at a time and finds he can get to four before the colored boxes stop appearing.

[Number of Weapons Systems Exceeded]

So every color is a different weapon then. Like the Mecha of Colonel Black, Max got one with two weapon arms, one a Gatling Battery, the other a Main Battle Cannon. On top of his Mecha's domed top shell sits a missile pod, and on the chest is a single Heavy Ion Blaster, best suited to single infantry targets, or sniping through open hatches as it's roughly the same weapon that infantry soldiers carry, just hard mounted.

"Alright Cadets. You should see your course in front of you. Eliminate all targets, take no damage, reach your destination in under five minutes. And GO." General Tennant announces through their virtual Mecha's internal speakers.

[Select Automatic Targeting?] May not be optimized for target priority.

Max thinks about that for a second and decides to see just how well it will do. After all, he's going to be running this course way more than one single time.

Max steps his mecha towards cover, forgetting for a second just how big of a difference there is between the five meter tall Corvette Class and the Ten meter tall Crusaders. The wall blocks his lower torso, but both weapon arms are exposed over the top, and the automatic targeting mode activated by his System opens fire on the enemy Mecha, picking targets by distance, closest first.

Every weapon is going at once and Max winds his way through the course, avoiding incoming fire while his mecha destroys everything in range. It only has a few minor hiccups, like using the Main Battle Cannon against an infantry motorcycle while the Ion Blaster was busy with the rest of the unit. Other than that the System Function worked amazingly well.

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Max didn't plan his route very well, not used to the volume of incoming fire, and took a significant amount of damage, but he finished in time and anything that moved is now dead.

"Congratulations Cadet on the most magnificent waste of ammunition I've ever seen in a training scenario. Using the Cannon against a motorcycle was a masterful touch, and I applaud your aim. Hitting a moving motorcycle with an artillery shell is no easy feat. Thirty percent hull damage taken, forty five percent of ammunition spent. Run again." Colonel Marino laughs over the intercom.

Over and over that morning they run, and Max learns how to fine tune his system's multi targeting skill. He can exclude types of units, so his light weapon only targets infantry, while the high explosive missiles wait until a group is present to fire.

It's also more efficient to control the main guns himself using the combination of the System Targeting and the Heads Up Display from the sensors than it is to leave them on automatic. He's just starting to get the hang of positioning his mecha to avoid being shot to ribbons when they break at the end of the day.

"Good job today Cadets. We will see you right here at 06:30 tomorrow morning. Don't be late." General Tenant dismisses them, sending the hungry Cadets jogging for the Mess Hall to see what's on the dinner buffet.

"That was intense. I'm glad I activated additional endurance for one of my Functions." Russo sighs, taking a seat next to the half conscious Ibanez.

"I think I'm going to die. Every part of me hurts. I got blown up so many times today I swear I heard the AI laughing at me." The big Cadet moans, looking to Russo for sympathy but finding none.

Nico is silent and thoughtful, and Max wonders if she's simply exhausted or if she learned something new today that might be interesting.

Max scans her memories to see what her System Functions might be, finding that she has activated two, the same as him. Only they're a bit odd, and not entirely Mecha related. The first is [Rapid Recovery] allowing her to heal and recover energy more quicky and easily than others.

According to the function, she can survive off of a mere 200 calories a day, and if necessary her body will process the rest from her surroundings in a way that sounds to Max a lot like it's photosynthesis.

The second function is [Mecha Modification] which looks much more like a utility for the techs repairing mecha than someone piloting them. Max can imagine that the Function might be truly deadly in combat though, with all her Weapons tweaked for increased damage and firing rate.

His Optimization Function only makes the best of what is available, her Modification Function gives her insight into how to change the Mecha to make it mechanically better, or does it automatically if no physical changes are needed.

It's not her System that's the most interesting though, it's a memory she was just thinking about of a modified Ion Destroyer, similar to the one that's on her chosen Mecha. The memory triggers something in Max, and a whole series of combat memories inside an unfamiliar Mecha known as the Gloriana flood his mind.

Max understands instantly that these are the memories of his past life, no longer locked away, but still incomplete. What he recalls are nothing but portions of battle scenes and combat techniques that were used during them.

Still, it's better than nothing, and Max already feels as if they are part of him, ground into his subconscious through a lifetime of repetition.

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