Chapter 12: Front 7; Progress (Arc 1 – ‘Introductions’ – Final Chapter)

Five days doesn't sound like alot of time, indeed at just barely half a week one doesn't imagine to achieve much in such a short period, then again the now twelve days Una had spent aboard the good ship Fluchtig surely felt more like months.
 With each day she found herself finally settling into Scarlet's harsh training regime, a little anyway.
 The woman would find some new exercise to focus on daily, uses for the Flak pods she had never imagined or practising of seemingly basic movements that became more tricky when used in the zero G of space.

The harsh criticisms and long anecdotes hardly let up either for that matter, but despite it all Una felt happier that her days were now packed to the brim with training, rather than the awkward solitude of her arrival.

 Something she was proud to of improved at, was her ability to pick up on the internal language of the vessel she called home. At first all Una ever heard were those talking about the new 'Rookie', later some had even attempted to label her 'Scarlet's Prodigy' but that had been mysteriously quietened just as abruptly as it had begun.

But underneath the rambling talk could be found the murmurs and whispered rumours that really reflected the general crews feelings. One topic foremost of all was destination.
 Seemingly a permanent fixture on the minds of all those aboard the ship, the various staff departments all seemed restless at the continued lack of word on where exactly the Fluchtig was going.
 As Una understood it, up until a month ago the Fluchtig had flown almost exclusively as an escort to its sister ship the Tradech - That was until its retinue of remaining pilots and battered Vijaik mechs were transferred off and in their place the new current group brought in, along with extensive retrofitting of the main hanger to allow for the Vijaik customisation programme.

This had all lead the general census to land on the idea that the Fluchtig would now form the head of a new battle group.
 This combined with the somewhat less well-founded rumours that suggested the IAF-Home-Defence-Fleet was finally drawing to completion, had all condoned to a palpable sense of expectations.
 If the home fleet was finished and the Tradech alongside the Fluchtig were both leading independent gorilla groups, than logic dictated that a true war - With no more hiding in shadows and with countries finally publicly declaring their support of IAFS - was surely right around the corner.

All this had centred on a single integral point that had come to light in the last couple days - They would be arriving at their destination in just 5 days.
 It was for this reason, five days after the rumour began circulating that Una found herself, after a full day of failed attempts, making one last gambit to triumph against the custom simulation Scarlet had set up.
 All in the full awareness there might be no further attempts after today and that tomorrow could very well bring whole new circumstances:

The blocky grey head of a basic Vijaik cautiously moved its way around a winding corridor, peering outwards in search of it query - However before it could even entirely succeed in this endeavour a blinding flash came before it, destroying its oval shaped visage in an instant.

 As the stricken machine stumbled backwards from the force, desperately trying to swap its vision to a different camera, a green patterned unit of similar humanoid portions, sprinted rapidly down the corridor.
 Well no one actually sprints in zero G, rather more a complicated dash making use of minor thrusters throughout a complex mechanism like a Vijaik.

Half a week ago, just 5 days prior Una couldn't of imagined moving so fast without the aid of boosters or launcher ramps but now she found herself rattling down the short alleyway, catching the grey enemy before it could so much as raise its own rifle.
 She positioned her weapon now, not quite against the surface of the enemy unit, as to protect the end of her weapon's nozzle, but close enough to insure a single shot victory.

"One"

Una passed the faintest of looks over to her tutor, only to find the woman's poker face looking back at her. She pushed down an urge to be disappointed, instead readying herself for the next step.
'I will pass it this time, it has to be this time!'

Generally speaking Simulations were randomised as in theory a pilot come simply learn the layout of any given generated space if that wasn't the case - However Miss.Scarlet proving surprisingly tech savvy, had programmed in her own details.
 The enemies were always the same, although two of them had the autonym to move about on their own discretion.
 
In a sense this gave Una an advantage, she had by now learned roughly where all her opponents would be but accordingly this seemed to matter little to Scarlet;
 "We focus on your instincts, you beat this course without thinking, by just feeling what you need to do and then we can worry about translating that skill to regular combat."

As in all attempts prior she turned the corner into the largest room of the testing ground, the one with the wall spanning window outlooking the bleakness of open space.
 Immediately she rose her rifle and shot, deliberately this time, for the small passenger transport. Her goal differed now, as rather than using the explosion to destroy the second unit, instead she got a different result.
 It had been only the most minor of movements but spooked by the exploding transport shuttle the second enemy who'd been hiding behind some discarded storage containers, had given away it's hiding place.

Una wasted no time, kicking off from her position she brought herself out into view of the unsuspecting enemy and fired another flurry of blinding orange lights.

"Two"
 Again her face seemed to betray none of what Scarlet was thinking but Una remained unperturbed.
 She had fired a slew of shots at that second enemy as well as using energy on her Vijaik's boasters to get with-in range of the targets, that in mind she now used the bare minimum to turn her mech towards the windowed wall, deciding not to waste time or resources getting herself back vertical.

As such when the next shot predictably came in from enemy No.3, Una's mech found itself in the air parallel to the ground, floating almost serenely with a steady spin.
 Before this shot had even finished its course, (landing with a heavy impact to her Vijaik's left shoulder) Una had released a flak pod forward at the enemy from her left leg mounted launcher.

Flak pods were something equipped to most mechs as a method of scattering particles of metal shrapnel to either disperse those brazen enough to attack a Vijaik from below with rocket launchers and the like - Aswell as to put heat tracking missiles off course during space combat.
 Their appearance was simply that of a small grey cylinder, like that of a smoke grenade.

To use them against another Vijaiks was pretty unheard of and yet Scarlet had emphasised the lesson;
 "Fire one of those with any accuracy at a computer opponent and you'll completely bugger their sensors. Buy's ya a couple seconds if you pull it off right"

Una (at the time partially worried this was some elaborate test on Scarlet's part) had questioned the validity of using such a tactic, after all it would have little effect in an actually Vijaik dual against real pilots.
 But the older woman had refused to relent.
 Una had yet to reach enough self-awareness to understand Scarlet intentions in showing her how to make use of any and all opportunities, no matter how underhanded a tactic may seem.
 In spite of this gap in understanding Una had persevered through the rigorous re-tutoring.

After-all they had of course been thought how to use the flak launchers back in the academy, but months of little to no practise had dulled her skill, as was the case with much of her piloting techniques.
 Now with determination written across her face, Scarlet from her perch observed as The Rookie's 'Flak Pod' hit home with excellent accuracy.

Just as predicted the enemy who had been moments from lousing it's second rifle shot, seemed to stall, its aim wavering and its head glancing side to side as though blinded by some terrible flash, despite the type of flak being little more than a fine misted spray compared to the size of the enemy.
 Una didn't complain, instead taking aim and finishing the third opponent with a small barrage from her rifle.
A part of her wanted to celebrate, another to check her machines read-outs but she knew to do either would be deadly.
 She had reached this point in the simulation a couple times before over the last few days and while the test stated the course to be only 3 enemies long, a fourth secret enemy of Scarlet's own devising always appeared, right in her blind-spot no matter how she handled the third enemy.

"Three"
 Right on que and almost in-sync with Scarlet's short statement of fact, a siren shrilled behind her head, indicating the incoming attack. There'd be no time to check the sensors to get a specific bearing on the assailant, nor time to visually confirm anything, instead her plan had to be instantons.
 'I will pass this time!'

Leaning all her weight into her side Una threw the Vijaik controls into what would of been a leftward dash, of course owing to her current horizontality it instead caused her Vijaik to rapidly spin in mid-air.
 Outside she could hear the simulator unit doing it's best to imitate the sensation of your whole machine spinning rapidly around. Una had learned that its obvious inability to have the cockpit spin was another of the practise machine's shortcomings.

When she'd first learned this she had been careless enough to give a devious smile, Scarlet seeing this had proceeded to march Una out on to the deck of the Fluchtig, still in her mech and spin it in the complete lack of gravity just off the ship's port bow.
 That spinning had made anything the simulator could do to you seem petty in-comparison and made the current sensation little more than a nuisance.

Almost to her disbelief the plan worked, unable to see her front face, 'Unit 4' let free two shots aimed squarely at Una's back. Unbeknownst to it, she pulled forward the shield gauntlet on her right arm, grabbing it tightly as her short revolution came to an end.
 The enemy blasts smacked against her still moving mech, smashing into the now front side shield that covered her vitals and drawing two blazing lines across it's face.
 Just barely failing to penetrate the thick armour plating.

Una wasted no time escaping from a potential third shot. Quickly changing the thruster direction, she set it all to an upwards course. Ordinarily that would of meant an untimely meeting with the ceiling, but on this occasion it rocketed her machine across the large room and back to the safety of cover.

Firmly out of harms way Una finally allowed herself a moments breath.
 This was the furthest she had made it but a quick glance at her instrumentation revealed not all was well.
 The trick with reading instruments as Scarlet taught it, was to disconcert the useful from the 'noise'.
Of all the lessons this one still proved somewhat illusive to Una, the words seemed to dance from place to place if she didn't take due care to heed them and even after Scarlet moved around the placement of the various monitor screens to optimise the more image based data from the worded, Una still found it difficult to wholly grasp the essential facts in a timely manner - That's why she'd needed cover.

But having found said cover was really only the first step, even if it did give her a moment to take everything in.

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The enemy who she'd at last caught a proper glimpse of was visually as drab as it's compatriots, bar a shining telescope-like lens over its visor face, in line with a long sleek rifle.
 Said rifle had now been identified by her own machine's computers;
A high precision weapon, not in anyway as powerful as Miss.Hoki's experimental type but still emitting that faint blue shine with each shot, as thought signalling the destructive power with-in.

During her first encounter she hadn't even spotted this enemy, with it managing to destroy her machine in just a single shot.
 Still powerful weapon or not, the enemy was camped on the far side of the room in a prone position, no more than 50 spans away. No another issue had arisen.

Put simply Vijaik combat came down to three primary factors;
 Pilot skill, Machine quality and, of course 'Power'.
Scarlet had deliberately set the energy level of Una's virtual Vijaik to a minimum, to prevent her from abusing the boosters to cover large areas or trying to fire broud barrages of regular fire.
 As it stood she found herself now with enough left for one or two more rifle rounds at most and a short hop of the thrusters.
 Neither of which would give her the desired victory.

There was also her arc staff but to get close enough to the enemy would become the issue, even if that had the highest chance of landing a decisive blow with it.
 Una paused for another few moments, considering all her options while remaining tensely aware that the enemy could at any time reposition and take her out while she stood simply contemplating.

Checking her equipment with one last cursory glance she readied herself for her resolution.

Grabbing a-hold of a corner of the wall that had provided her with a short lived sanctuary, she walked herself around into the open. Half floating, half sprinting she began her charge forward.
 The first step was to release her heavily battered shield, taking it in one hand she flung the much abuse object forward with as much accuracy as she could muster.
 Finally she could of sworn a half-smile crossed Scarlet's lips.

The shield did as planned, colliding with an incoming line of cyan, the energy bursting through a burning hole and then out the other side to where Una's Vijaik had stood just moment's prior.
 A second shot followed quickly but again Una had prepped herself.
The bluebottle lightning bolt glided straight for the cabin bulkhead only to be intersected by Una's rifle and after that her left hand held aloft in front of her torso area.
 The bolt quickly dispatched the relatively thin rifle which burst into a colourful cloud of pulsing light, which in turn the Vijaik soon pounced through with a flourish.

The left arm was next, the continued assault of energy blasts cutting through it like a knife through cardboard.
 Finally the arm relented and fell to Una's side, a tangled mess of exposed cables and leaking hydraulic fluid visible for the world to see.
'Better no arm than dead, right teacher?!'

All that remanded now was her left hand, again crossed against her chest, arc staff still retracted for concealment purposes, held in its large palm.
 If she lost the arm now, than even if she could cover the distance, the distance that now seemed so excruciatingly little, she'd have no means of attack left to hit with.

Una held her breath but not out of fear this time, instead a wave of excitement seemed to wash over her, anticipation even. Every second felt long but in an exhilarating fashion, waiting each moment to see how many more steps she could take before the enemy could fire again.
 And of course it did fire again.

The arc made it's way across at the usual blistering pace, but before it could burn a way through her remaining arm, Una made one more split-second decision, she lowered the arm.
 A true grin now covered Scarlet's face and while she couldn't know it, so too did one cross Una's own visage.
'This time for sure!'

More then just sirens abounded through the cockpit now, a large diagram appearing on the second biggest monitor - Displaying on it a 3D chicken-wire-esk diagram of the cabin bulkhead, of the faint cyan line slowly burning its way through, of the single word written in the space behind the large bulkhead - 'Pilot'.

They had learned it all before of-course, Una knew deep down most of this training was just to relearn what 3 months confined to a barracks and a lack of practical experience out in the field of battle had robbed from her.
 To refine what 8 months of training, where she had never quite been able to reach her full potential, should of taught her - She knew really it was just a simulator, that real combat would be so much harder and far more dangerous - And yet the adrenaline flowed.

Stopping inches from the crew-cabin (if the diagram was to be believed), the blue projectile came to a halt.
 The sniper now only metres away began to move but it was far to late, the AI opponent must have calculated its chances of destroying Una to be better by firing till the very end in its current position, rather than try and move while she'd been mid-charge.
 That decision would cost it the battle.

Flooring whatever spare power still remined into the surviving arm's hydraulics and the downwards thrusters, Una's machine finally made it past the face down enemy, her arc-staff unfurling elegantly fourth and igniting into a colourful red glow of it's own.
 She planted one foot firmly on the waist swivel of the enemy who desperately tried to move out of reach.
 Now effectively pinned to the floor, Una with just one weapon and one arm left, rammed the blazing quarter-staff down with an almighty force straight through the back of the enemy cabin.

The Machine writhed for a passing moment, its hands clawing for leverage, its head unit jittering grossly, all as though trying to climb up the length of the energy conduit cleaving it, before finally succumbing to it's impaling and sliding limply to the ground as the life left its mechanical body.

The battle was won.

Simulation Over
Party A (1st Crewman O' Conchabhair) - Successful.

Una felt her whole body go light as she collapsed back into her chair, a feeling of relief and exhaustion lapping over her in tidal waves. She looked up with an air of hope at her ever watchful observer.

 There she stood, a week or even 14 days isn't that long a period, not really and yet there stood Thee Scarlet Scourge.

Not the overly menacing pirate or the brash and ill-mannered woman but now somehow, her ad-hoc tutor.

 There she was, a reassuring presence despite all the extensive out of hours training - All with a massive wolfish grin plastered on her face - And for the first time Una knew that grin was not for Scarlet herself but instead meant as unequivocal praise for Una's first big achievement.

"Not bad Girl, though I don't remember teaching you to throw your weapons around like that. Still, - not bad."
 As she spoke Scarlet nodded her grinning head at the monitor once more;

 

"Pilot Rank Statistics, Callsign(s) Displayed;
- 'Rookie' +250, Rank Increase From 'D-' to 'D'

Una could do nothing but smile in relief and just a tiny bit of pride - From ear to ear.

End of Arc 1 - Thanks for Reading.

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