Futuristic THE LAST SHIELD

[Zahzi]

Hannes Krieger Haber
Location: Sanctuary Point Unified Command Naval Base; Simulated Moon Base
Nearby: ALL
Disposition: Ah, zo ZHIS is vhere ze budget vent...
​

As the simulation booted back up Krieger took the time to take in his surroundings. While he WAS listening to the scientists, sure, he couldn't help but drown out the less-important details as he stared up at the Earth. The base? the stars? None of it mattered to him. He could see his homeland from here. He hadn't been cleared to return ever since the 12th had gone on their crusade after the fall of Berlin. After everything that had happened, well, it wasn't like he was going to be welcomed back anytime soon.

He shook hos head once the instructions came onto screen for him, his attention returning to in front of him, instead of around.
"Let's zee how zhis goes..." he muttered to himself as he activated his ETA, the familiar sound of its systems drumming back to life. It never did sound exactly the same after that stunt in St. Petersburg..
Focus
Krieger gave a sigh, knowing what came next with the reactivation of the Shell.
"..Zo be et." he muttered as everything went dark again.


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No response from Krieger.


01011001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110011 01101001 01100111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100110 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 01110111 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01100101 01100001 01110010 00100000 01101101 01100101 00101110


At his point he was probably just trying to ignore it.


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"Können Sie mich einfach neu kalibrieren lassen?

FÜR FÜNF MINUTEN!?"


Silence


"Oh, Sie KÖNNEN also den Anweisungen folgen. Zur Kenntnis genommen."

Krieger's hand hovered over the final switch to disengage manual control. He had been told for his case specifically, this would play out dramatically different. But, they were...Vague...About why.
"...Here goes nozhing..." he muttered as he flipped it, causing everything to go dark once again.


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"Ruhig."


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"Ich werde Ihren Großrechner immer wieder zurücksetzen, bis Sie nicht einmal mehr richtig denken können."


As his vision returned, Krieger could understand their vagueness now. His view was no longer from the inside looking out, but now just out.
"Zhat iz...." he trailed off looking down at raising his arm, seeing only the hardware of SOLDAT instead of his own.
"...Interezting..."

He began to make slow, lumbering movements forward. A smile would creep across his face....If he could, anyway.
"I definitely have more appreciation for ze veight of Zoldat. Even if it IZ at 1/6th..."
Once he hit the 100 meter mark he came to a halt, trying to figure out how to activa-
Oh. Oh.
They activated on his thought processes. Which meant....
SOLDAT boosted forward, the treads on the bottom of the ETA's feet spun to assist in gliding the mechanized brick along.

If the technicians were still monitoring Krieger from outside the pod, they could probably hear the jovial, yet still mechanically-assisted sound of him reacting to childlke glee, operating his ETA as if it were indeed him.

"Zhis....Iz invigorating! Ztupendious! I have not felt zhis veightless in years!"

Aaaand it was then reality kicked back in, causing him to realize everyone else could hear his elation, causing both him and SOLDAT to grind to an abrupt halt as he took a few moments to regain his usual composure, not yet realizing he had already cleared through the checklist in his own moment of joy.
"....Anyvay...." His attention was turned now to those around him.

"Courtney, az Harland unt Cyrus have said, it may take time to acclimate. Take all ze time you need.
Acht, Cyrus, unt Kyo? Very ghut for your first runshrough.
Harland, zhank you for azizting Courtney, unt I am expecting great zhings vhen you give it your bezt zhot.
Alex? I avait eagerly to zee how you zhow uz how it iz done."

 

[welian]

Canary

Overview

Location	No longer enjoying the Moonbase
Tags	simj26 Zahzi YLVillain

Courtney wiggled around, futile in her troubleshooting skills. Thankfully, the other cadets were helpful. Even kind, arguably, for what a rough group this could be in the mess hall.

“Oh! Thanks, dude! Let me just… wiggle a bit here and… Aha! Alright, I’m good to go, you can set me down.”

With James’ help steadying her craft and his suggestion to switch back to manual controls, she was able to right herself. One leg at a time, like somewhere between a camel standing up and a fan slowing spinning, each leg of her mech propped up the cab, until she was upright and level.

“Manual is so much easier,” she sighed, as some overgrown German kindergartner went speeding by in the background, and her mech spun (much more smoothly) to face the direction of Cyrus’ voice.

“Someone isn’t forklift certified.” Her voice was mostly bemused, but certainly a little annoyed –from her wounded pride, really, and not out of any dislike for Cy. After all, her day started with dropping a rock down a toilet… but thank God she wasn’t James.

“If this were a test of manual controls, I could sweep Harland here off his feet and dance with him. We’d be, uhm… uh… what are their names? Ginger and Frank.”

Still… it wasn’t the worst advice, the more she thought about what he said. She held up her hands and looked at them, wiggling her fingers like little crab legs.

“Harland, stand back a second? I’m going back to… eugh, automatic controls.”

It lurched and rocked, like a teenager learning to parallel park for the first time. But by God, between James and Cyrus, Courtney was able to cautiously crawl forward several steps.

“HA! I DID IT! I FUCKING DID I—NO NO NONONONONONO—"

In her exuberant celebration, Courtney pictured herself jumping for joy. Her mech leapt up as well, thrusters firing suddenly. Ye Olde Pillebug leaned backwards – too far backwards – and Courtney found herself as a turtle on its back and skidding backwards several dozen feet. Hopefully she didn’t take out anyone parked behind her.

“I. Hate. This. So. Much.”

 

[Kameron Esters-]

Moraes U. Coaling - ARES Program Day 1 - Evaluation 2, Moonbase Arclight

The transition to the simulated Moonbase Arclight wasn't just a shift in scenery for Moraes; it was a step into a new realm of piloting. The lunar landscape, with its stark beauty and desolate tranquility, served as a vivid backdrop for the tasks at hand. As he digested the list of tasks provided by Dr. Simonova, Moraes understood that despite the seemingly simple instructions, the true challenge lay in mastering the controls under the unique conditions of lunar gravity and direct neural interfacing.

Taking a deep breath, Moraes activated the startup sequence of his ETA. The cockpit hummed to life, the familiar vibrations of the machine now felt more pronounced through the Shell augmentation. He could sense the cold metal beneath his feet and the vast openness of the lunar surface ahead, an eerie echo of steps on gravel transferred through the ETA's sensors.

"Engage Shell Neuropathic Uplink control mode," Moraes commanded aloud, following the sequence of the evaluation. He felt a jolt, like a sudden drop on a roller coaster, as his mind melded deeper with the machine. This sensation was followed by an almost eerie calm as he took a moment to adjust to the sensation of his thoughts being translated into mechanical actions.

The first task required him to travel forward 100 meters at half speed without thrusters. Moraes focused, visualizing the movement in his mind. The ETA responded, albeit with a slight delay, moving forward across the dusty lunar terrain. The sensation of motion was disorienting at first, as every small bump was amplified by the reduced gravity, making the ETA feel like it was gliding on ice.

Next, he was to maintain a stable hover of at least four meters for ten seconds using vertical thrusters only. Moraes concentrated on balancing the power output, feeling the ETA rise off the ground. The view of Earth in the horizon provided a surreal backdrop as he counted down the seconds, his machine hovering unsteadily like a leaf on water.

For the third task, Moraes pushed the ETA to full speed for 500 meters, then stopped it in less than ten seconds without using adjustment thrusters. The speed built quickly, the landscape blurring past. Stopping proved more difficult; the ETA skidded forward an extra few meters in the low gravity, throwing up clouds of lunar dust.

Using adjustment thrusters for the next repeat of the task, Moraes found greater control, the ETA responding more crisply to his commands as he executed a quicker stop. The feedback from the machine was instantaneous and more intuitive, a testament to the synchronicity achieved through the Shell.

As Moraes completed the tasks, he took a moment to explore the range of movements available in the simulated ETA. He practiced a few maneuvers, each motion more fluid than the last as he adapted to the peculiarities of lunar piloting. The freedom to move without the immediate danger of combat allowed him to experiment with techniques that would have been too risky in an actual battle scenario.

 

[fluticasone]

fluticasone fluticasone

Hi-Chew

The pain would get easier, her score would get higher. It was like adjusting to braces. It hurt like a bitch when it was first installed, but the pain would ease as things locked into place.

Rie waited patiently for the next set of instructions. She counted the strokes it required to write each letter of the alphabet, a meditative practice she'd picked up during patrol nights.

Three A...Three B... One C... Two—

Weightlessness. Feeling untethered as the great blue wrapped around you; it was almost home. Rie opened the eyes she'd unknowingly shut. Instead of water, the universe's immeasurable expanse threatened to crush her.

The moon. A discarded project, though it ultimately continued to serve a purpose. This was probably still a last resort for the select few they deemed worthy.

"Hi-Chew, beginning." Starting the ETA was easy. Engaging the SNU? Rie grit her teeth. The pain was may have dimmed somewhat due to the calibrations, but she was still reeling from that first shock.

It took her a full minute to recover. As her nerves settled and her stomach stopped pitching, she observed the others in her batch.

Yongsan and Eight set off to accomplish their tasks. If this were university, they'd be ruining the curve for everyone. With a shake of her head, she moved her hands to the controllers. She'd have to turn off manual control mode, but she wanted to put some distance between herself and her classmates before switching to this new tech. She didn't want to accidentally knock over one of them if she fucked up.

The moment she disengaged controls, it felt like she was in a full body cast. It was bizarre. She felt the ground, but it was as if it was through a noisy filter. More calibration required, most likely. The ETA would respond to her thoughts, right? So if she thought of stretching out her left arm, it would do it, right?

The HUD showed a pink hunk of metal mimicking the movement that should've been her own arm. It was a little uncanny valley, if she were being honest. Next would be a step—

A pilot called for help, forcing Rie's focus to change to the crab monstrosity of a mech to her left. She was in no place to respond to it, though fortunately someone else pitched in to stabilize the poor creature. She'd once considered a machine on all fours, but seeing Canary's struggle, she thought it for the best she'd stuck to the default bi-pedal frame.

"Just imagine taking a step, right?" The question was directed at no one in particular. Her left leg shifted only slightly in her pod, but the SNU accurately translated it as a full step for the mech. It felt like moving with lead for blood, but it was manageable. She tried another. This time it felt lighter.

Like breaking in new boots. Each step she took made it easier to flow into the next. The sensations grew sharper as well. At first she was driving a car over a rough road, the suspension dulling the sensations. Now she was walking barefoot on the surface of the moon.

"It kinda feels like walking back at home." She said. It was odd how the current simulation, so far removed from earth, reminded her of her tiny island town in the middle of the pacific. Or maybe she was just homesick. Probably that. At least she finished the first traveling task easier than expected.

general comms

 

[americanCaeser]

ALFIE 'PERCIVAL' QUILLER

Mentions: Coin (Captain Vidal, Dr Minamoto, Dr Simonova) Zahzi (Krieger) Kameron Esters- (Moraes) welian (Canary) FabulousTrash (Yongsan) YLVillain (Cyrus) Remembrance (Eight) simj26 (Harland)

​

Percival was, for lack of a better word... pissed.

Completely so. So much so that he had spent the last few minutes of time between the initial diagnostics and the beginning of the simulation calming himself down. Despite his strong reaction and general demeanor, his frustration was actually quite uncharacteristic for him. He was usually better at bottling up his anger and distress and suppressing it, otherwise he would've been consumed by it a long time ago. No, here, Percival was struggling with the prospect of failure, total failure. By no means did Percival ever believe himself to be perfect, or the best, or even above making mistakes and failing. But to go from being renowned for his high skill and aptitude for ETA maneuver to ranking a fookin' 3 is just-

It stung. Harshly. It meant he'd need to apply far, FAR more work to improve his connection with his mech if he wanted to truly get to something reaching the level he desired. More time wasted planning and preparing and honing his skills. More time to allow The Black Knight the enemies of man to grow themselves and wet their blades on helpless pilots. He knew he needed to do much work to even have a snowballs chance in Hell of reaching Vidal's level, much less That Things... the level he desired.

How many more would have to die before Percival could protect them?

The Pod's screens shifted and after a few moments of buffer and free-falling, as well as a subtler sensation of pins and needles, Percival found himself upon the moon.

He had to admit, it was... quite a sight. He couldn't even see the signs of Starfallen tearing apart the world, and one could imagine the planetary marble to be an empty and peaceful ball of life. He could see Eastern Asia and most of the pacific, even a typhoon working its way towards Formosa and Korea.

Percival's brief revelry was interrupted by voices coming in over the radio comm's. A neat checklist of objectives was tucked away in the corner of his pods screen to review, and he turned his Jetstream's body and head to observe the other pilots. Several immediately stood out. Several pilots had already completed or were in the process of completing their fourth objective while others... struggled. The multi-legged ETA had to be supported back up by a fellow pilot. The Pilots with the HUD tags of Hi-Chew, Yongsan, Moraes, Cyrus, Krieger, and Eight all immediately established themselves as interesting and efficient, already taking strides in the moon dust. The latter three also struck Percival as possible leadership candidates, with Moraes and Krieger being particularly skilled (Bars to compare himself to in the future). Jailbird, Canary, and Harland all dallied at the start. Canary's ETA was unique, a harder learning curve and Harland seemed capable when it came to manual controls. Jailbird, however, was of a cautious sort, and this was not the first time he had noticed her hesitating while awaiting clarification.

Percival felt calmer now. Analyzing his environment and others helped re-center on what truly mattered. Analyzing what was helped distract him from what essentially wasn't. Even if it lurked in the back of his mind.

Okay.

Enough delay. Time to get to work.

Percival went through the start up procedures like clock-work, the near-perfect replica of a Typhoon pod leaving little room for error for Percival on this front. Equally simple was the ENU, and Percival's body filled with pins and needles as he felt his unconscious nerves stretch throughout the body of the ETA. It wasn't... entirely normal though. Parts of the ETA tingled or remained numb, and just standing there took a few moments to adjust to. Unlike most of the other pilots, Percival took time to stand there and adjust his ETA's stance. Balance, especially for Percival's style of fighting, was incredibly important. What's more, there was the gravity and terrain to consider.

The moon dust was exactly that, dust, and there was a lot of it. It kicked up easy in the thin atmosphere and it was deep in several places even by ETA standards. The low gravity also meant that any movement felt slightly... off. Less strain on the ETA to move, but that came back two-fold with most people being unused to factoring in 1/6th the gravity of Earth in maneuvers. Still using his manual controls, Percival's ETA 'Jetstream' bent over and plucked up a rock from the lunar surface. Letting it drop to the palm of his hand, he gently tossed it up, watching as the rock reached its zenith and slowly fell back into his ETA's palm like it was in water.

Then, Percival disengaged the manual controls. He stood still, feeling every shift of his mind and body cause the ETA to respond in someway. With effort, far more effort than he would've liked, Percival forced his- forced the ETA's hand to toss the rock up. This time, the ETA applied a bit too much force and the stone flew well above the mech. Carefully, Percival reached out the ETA's hand to catch the rock as it fell down but it bounced off of the mech's finger before falling back into the dust. Well, hand-eye coordination was... there. Definitely something to work upon in the future.

Now came the hard part. Adjusting his body- er, the ETA's body (The blurring line between the two would also require adjustment) into a firm stance and took his first step as both a pilot and an ETA as one. And immediately regretted it. A sense of vertigo flooded through Percivals mind, his mind registering both how his body was in one place while somehow doing another. After the first step he paused, desperate determined not to lose his balance as his head swam and slowly settled. Then he took another step, and another.

Slowly, step by step, Percival advanced forward across the dustfield. However, the sense of Vertigo did not wane. It remained the entire time and though his Jetstream had very little physical issues, the nauseating sense of two separate entities hammered home the issues Percival would have to overcome. But one thing was clear; he could not fight in this state.

A part of him wanted to throw away this stupid program and go back to the ranks, doing what he did best. However, he immediately squashed that thought. He had seen ARES Pilots before, and even the mediocre ones performed leagues above most manual-assisted veterans. The ENU was the ticket to Percival's next stage as a warrior hunter fighter killer coward and he could not, would not afford himself to make excuses and cheat himself of such an opportunity. He had hit a wall when it came to piloting skill a while ago and he needed a new path to ascend to further heights and ARES was his best bet of that.

Slowly, and eventually with a bit more confidence, he had gone from careful steps to a full stride. The vertigo remained, ebbing and flowing, but Percival endured it. Soon, he stood beside the other Pilots who had reached the fourth objective as well.

 

[simj26]

2nd Lt. James Harland

He shook his head and sighed in disbelief. This SNU brain stuff is going to give him a headache. If this was the effect on someone who could barely link up with the brain thing, what would he get?

It didn't matter for the time being. He had to help her up. Get her back on her feet. A team was only as strong as its weakest member. Far as he was concerned, he was the strongest here, even without the brainjack. Especially without the brainjack. It was his duty to ferry the young and flailing to reach their best potential.

<<C'mon, up you get.>>

The craft's servos groaned as he tried to shift the full weight of the multi-legged machine. Not enough juice. Even if he pumped the rest of the power into the arms and legs, the refurbished trash can couldn't put out enough power to lift the damn thing.

He glanced around. All around him were the other pilots milling about, executing their tasks to their best degree. A singular emotion rose up in him as he saw them gallivant about at the prospect of finishing their tasks.

The grand feeling of hate.

He slammed his fist onto the open comms button. <<If you've got time being smug about being able to execute simple tasks, help her up. A team isn't all about you. You see a man down, and all you can do is carry on? The fuck kind of military did you asswipes go to? The one that's all about saving your own skin and being the best? When your life's on the line, you're gonna expect someone else to save your sorry ass, too? Or are you gonna lie there and wait to die?>>

<<Krieger! Eight!>> He barked out two random names. He didn’t know who they were. He only remembered the names on the pods he had walked past earlier. Easiest to remember. <<On me. The rest of you can fuck off back to looking on and pretending like you're worth anything.>>

He turned to Cyrus, and nodded. <<Thanks for the help, brother. As you were.>> His tone softened as he spoke to the other man. <<Good luck on the tasks.>>

He returned his attention to the fallen craft, and readied his hands under the multi-legged craft again. <<On your count to three, Eight.>> His voice softened, just a little, but the spite for his fellow classmates remained. <<We all lift together, and get this baby bird back on her feet.>>

He directed his comms to the upended craft. <<Can you hear me, pilot? Stay calm, we're getting you back on your feet.>>

He turned back to the two he had summoned. <<You ready?>>




Mentioned:
EVERYONE ON COMMS

Interacted directly with:
Canary welian
Eight Remembrance
Krieger Zahzi
Cyrus YLVillain

 

[Remembrance]

AX-8 | "Eight" | Arcade
Priority: First Law
Interactions: Zahzi (Friend Krieger) simj26 (Friend Harland) welian (multi-legged ETA)
Mentions: YLVillain (Kind human continuing to be kind)​

Despite the initial difficulty, Eight was acclimating quite well. They could swivel the ETA and manipulate each appendage with little to no difficulty. Every now and then, there is a delay between when Eight resolves to execute an action and when the ETA actually responds. Logically, Eight could anticipate the delay and work around it as much as they could. However, the delay time varied in the extremes. From a half-milisecond to two full seconds, this was a labor Eight could not overcome simply with math and logic.

All of this came to an end as Eight spotted a brief flash and a plume of dust. Was that an asteroid? No, the researchers and instructors would not put a hazard into a preliminary training course. Did a structure collapse? That could not have happened, for the same reason as before, it posed too much of a hazard. The Sanctuary Point staff would not purposely harm a human, right?

Ruling out any environment hazards, Eight reckoned, with as little doubt as possible, that this had occurred from an ETA. ETAs use pilots. The pilots are human.

This was a conflict of the First Law.

Eight's suspicions were confirmed when Friend Harland radioed to them about the incident. The Flight Over Elysian Fields burst into a sprint. Dust kicked up behind them as each foot made their impact.

In the corner of their monitor, their score began to rise. It started in increments of .000000001, rising with every meter traversed.

This is a human in danger. Robots cannot allow a human to be harmed.

Cresting over a hilltop, Eight spared a quick and absentminded glance at their Uplink Level before confirming visual contact with the site of the incident.

LEVEL : 3.141592653​

Eight listened carefully to what Friend Harland was ordering. They carefully guided their own ETA into a crouch, placing their hand manipulators beneath the multi-legged companion. Is this ETA practical? Humans are bipedal, though they are capable of quadrupedal actions. Once again, is this ETA practical?

<<I am ready, Friend Harland and Friend Krieger.>>

 

[Zahzi]

Hannes Krieger Haber
Location: Sanctuary Point Unified Command Naval Base; Simulated Moon Base
Nearby: ALL
Disposition: ...He DOES know zhis is a zimulation....Yes?
​

Krieger, if he still had access to them, would raise a brow to Harland's outburst. While true, in a true scenario the well being of the team was priority, this, was NOT a true scenario. He knew that, right? Krieger had requested the psyche reports of the other members of this class so to have an idea how approach from their viewpoints. Harland had a similar level of turmoil prior to being here, yet their response toward it and the world around them could not be different. Interesting..

01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100101 00111111 00100000 01000101 01110110 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110011 01100001 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101001 01100011 01101011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100101 01111000 01101001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101110 01100011 01100101 00101110 00100000

While Krieger was chosing to ignore the new message, as he grew closer to Harland, Courtney, and Eight, there was a distinct chance they could hear it through their radio. While Eight could probably understand it clearly, the others would probably hear deliberate static, or something like Morse Code?

"...Of course, Herr Harland. In a real zituation ve vould priorize ze zafety unt vell being of our compatriots. Come on, zhen."

SOLDAT towered over the other ETAs before it reached down to assist in bringing the comically toppled spider mech back to its feet, the normally hidden hands latching onto the frame as he looked back to Harland and Eight.

"Eins, Zwei..."

 

[YLVillain]

Location: Sanctuary Point Unified Command Naval Base - Hangar 12/Moonbase A Simulation
Interactions: simj26 (Harland), Everyone (Open Class Channel)
Mentions: Coin (Captain Vidal), welian (Courtney), Everyone

Cyrus observed as the crab was able to get moving slightly better after it got back on its feet. He smiled with pride and was about to message over comms before he saw the crab jump up and topple over. He watched as Harland tried to pick her up but to no avail. Cyrus was about to head over when the open channel went live and Harland started blowing up on the whole class. Cyrus was about to follow up when Harland acknowledged Cy and his contributions to helping Canary thus far. Cy paused for a moment as Harland continued barking at the rest of the class. He understood his frustration and reasonings behind it, but it was a lot more than what seemed necessary for the situation. After a few moments, right as the group was getting the crab flipped over, Cyrus opened a private channel with Harland, "I appreciate the sentiment, however, your delivery was a little extreme to the rest of the class. I get the frustration of others abandoning a classmate in need, that's why I stopped to help from where I could myself, but the situation was still fairly new and freshly handled. I don't think many people had the time nor opportunity to realize that further help was even needed given you and I were already on the case. I know the nature of this program carries a lot of pressure and prestige behind it, but that's no reason to go tearing others down for acting how they believe is best. It's still a class after all, we're all here to learn something still. Sure, we come from all corners of the world and have been given the titles of Wonder 9s, but all that did was get us here and show that we're survivors."

Cyrus took a pause to collect his thoughts. He switched channels to talk where everybody could hear him before continuing with Harland, "None of us here are any better or any worse than our comrades beside us, no matter where we came from. The initial connectivity eval isn't luck-based or skill-based, it's different for everybody no matter how good or bad they are. I mean, look at our CO and where he started to where he is now. We all have plenty to learn here so let's give everybody the grace and understanding that it's what we're here to do. They have our combat records and history already, they already know who we are, and they still put all of us in the same class anyways. Nobody here believes the team is about themselves, because they would be dead by now if they did. Just take a breath and focus on helping yourself and your class how you want to. You can lead by example and the rest will sort itself out in time."

Cyrus cut his mic and exhaled. He had no idea if that would make matters better or worse, but at least his thoughts on the class and how to approach it were out there for everybody in the exercise to take and work with it however they please. Even if Cyrus got away from being chewed out, he wasn't going to leave the rest of his class to fend for themselves if he could help it. The nature of his artillery role requires a lot of trust between him and those who are going to be standing near his target zones. Cyrus believed that if he were on the other side, that he'd rather have somebody who cares about him dropping heavy ordinance on his position rather than somebody who only wants to level a battlefield of any and all life in that area. Cyrus shook his head to clear his mind and prayed for a moment, "Please guide us all on the best path forward. We come from many directions and having all of us step in the same one would bring us closer to peace, even if for a short time. I hope for all of us that this blessing is one worth granting, if not by any hand, then by my own."

Cyrus remained silent to let the air around him settle before he continued. He had stayed still for long enough, and it was time for him to move on to his next task. Cyrus was partially concerned for this task because he didn't have any long duration vertical thrusters. However, it didn't take him long for him to crack a cheeky plan to get by it. He found himself a fairly sizeable crater for him to work over, and took a hardy step up and off to make a sort of standing jump. Periodically, while in the air, or well in space since there was no atmosphere, he would activate gentle bursts of his jump jets to control his elevation and trajectory. It wasn't long before the task marked itself complete and he landed on the other side of the crater.

Next item on the list was to run half a kilometer at top speed and then stop in less than 10 seconds w/o thrusters. Cyrus didn't think that was going to be too bad. After all, his mech is the slowest of the bunch, meaning he should have the easiest time stopping. He's always been able to stop and roll his mechs under 10 seconds back on Earth plenty of times, so it should be no problem here either. Cyrus found himself a long strip for him to jog on, which given he perceived the mech as generally slower than he was as a person, the mech trudged along a bit slower than normal, even though it was read at being at top speed. Now that he had sustained 500m, it was time for him to stop. He fell into a slide and counted off the seconds. By the time he reached 5 seconds, he realized that he had barely even began to slow down. It wasn't until 30 seconds later when he finally came to a complete stop with sliding alone. Cyrus was shocked by this outcome, but realized he shouldn't be since this was something to be expected on a completely different celestial body. He tried to get back up but his joints refused to move and seized up. Monitors piped up with error symbols that the joints had foreign debris in them jamming their mobility. He remembered from the university that he volunteered at, that he had to do a Plant the Moon challenge using Lunar Regolith as his soil base. The material was very very fine in its grain size and had considerable adhesive properties. Cyrus groaned at the idea that not only did he have to find a way to cut his stopping time down by 20 seconds, but also do it while having his servos seize up with every attempt he tried to do so.

Cyrus reset his ETA in the simulation and trudged from the starting line back over to his running strip. He decided he was going to skip task six for now and just move on to task seven, see how doable that was. He got his jogging start, but somewhere around the 300m mark, he idled his mind too much and he ended up tripping over a pretty sizeable rock and eating shit. It already sucks enough as it is to wipeout in a mech in manual, it sucks even more to wipeout and feel what the ETA feels too while being jostled around by the fall proper. You feel what you feel and what the ETA feels, making the feeling just that much better. Cyrus reset himself again and got back to his spot. He was a lot more careful the second time around, focusing on maintaining his pace before he got to the end. Once it was time for him to stop and use thrusters, he leaped, activated a 2g burn for one second, and prepared to slide... or at least so he thought as that was enough to completely stop his momentum. Unfortunately, he was still thinking he was going to slide, so instead he just fell on his ass. It felt like having a chair wiped away from underneath you, but not as bad since the gravity is lower on the moon. Sitting on the ground, he looked over at his checklist and saw that the seventh task was marked complete. All that was left was the sixth task, and he had a little less than 20 minutes left to do so.

Cy would proceed to spend the next 10+ minutes attempting the sixth task and failing and resetting each time. By this point, he had spent as much time trying to solve this task as he had the rest of his tasks, and he still was making little to no headway on it. At best, because he got lucky with one landing attempting catching him, he got his stopping time down to 17 seconds. However, it was also during that attempt that he felt like his muscles got pulled as it was his leg that got caught and slowed him down. Cyrus was really heating up again by this point, which only affirmed his theory even more. Not only did he have to feel like he was working out a physical exercise, but he was getting exhausted mentally from trying to figure out new ways to tackle the problem, and his shell was burning him up again. His temperature got up to 39 C (102.2 F) this time, the hottest it had gotten. This was a combination of him really working his ETA and feeling all of the effort and effects personally. He began sweating profusely and breathing heavy. He couldn't even relax because whenever he did, he couldn't help but wipe the sweat off his body and his skin was burning to the touch. If he couldn't take this laying down, then he just had to keep pushing and persevering. He wasn't going to make any progress by cooling off, and he was running out of time, he needed to find something to help him slow down. He had already tried sliding, sliding and burying himself, sliding and catching himself with cables. With each attempt he either finished way overtime or overtime with broken equipment. Cyrus knew that by pushing himself that the heat inside him would only grow hotter, but he was determined to finish this check list, no matter what it took.

 

[FabulousTrash]

​

Kyo Yu-Ni | "Yongsan"
Sanctuary Point Unified Command Naval Base - Hanger 12 / Moonbase Arclight simulation

Mentions: Courtney ( welian ), Harland ( simj26 ), Cyrus ( YLVillain ), Krieger ( Zahzi ), Eight ( Remembrance )

​

It didnt take long for Yu-Ni to check off the last task on the list given to her. By now, she had fully adjusted to control her ETA through the Shell. Her machine was much more responsive compared to using manual controls, and using her mind as the input meant that she could pull off more complex maneuvers. Though, Yu-Ni couldn't allow herself to become fully dependent on the Shell. As she fired her adjustment thrusters to bring herself to a full stop, Yu-Ni reached up to an overhead panel, re-engaging manual controls for the time being as she stared ahead where the rest of the pilots were. Each were progressing through the second evaluation with varying degrees of success. Then there were those that haven't even started.

As if on cue, Harland's voice came over the comm, chewing out everyone for not helping someone in distress. Yu-Ni said nothing in reply, but watched as his ETA moved to help the 6-legged mech that was on it's back, almost like a turtle. Other pilots moved their machines to assist, as Krieger and Cyrus did their best to try and relive the tension in the air. Yu-Ni remained back, since there wouldn't be much she could contribute. Too many hands in the pot, or kitchen, or something like that. American phrases always confused her.

For the most part, Harland had a point. A single person is only as strong as the team supporting them, and if one went down, it affects everyone else. However, Yu-Ni knew that the situation was much different on the battlefield. You can try your hardest to keep everyone alive and get them home at the end of the day, but there would be a time where you have to make a choice. She already knew the choice she'd make.

Yu-Ni navigated over towards the group regardless, if nothing more than just to offer encouragement, as well as advice for Courtney.

"Deep breath, relax. Emotions can influence your thoughts easily. Think about your movements as if your ETA is an extension of your body and not a machine you're piloting. That may help you have a more finite control over your walker. At least, that works for me."

(hidden scroll ↓)

 

[Megilagor]

Philip Warragul Bernadotte "Kiwi"​

Location: Evaluation 2, Moonbase Archlight
ARES Program: Day 1
Mentions: Cyrus ( YLVillain )
Interactions: Courtney ( welian ), Harland ( simj26 ), Krieger ( Zahzi ), Eight ( Remembrance )

"What? Alen tell me the Tech is lying to me. Pls tell me it's a lie and I can have a smoke break?"
"Suck it up Kiwi its not your free time but duty time so do as you are told maybe it will go quicker if you stop yapping and comply."
"Yeah yeah, same old spiel about duty, do you ever learn Ronin?"
"Using codenames now are you? Good then get to work!"
Philip grumbled a bit before settling down in the pod, as well as taking out a small device from his pocket, and putting its only earphone into his ear before turning it on.
<"Kiwi to Ronin. Kiwi to Ronin is the route clear?">
<"The route is loud and clear Kiwi. Settle down for now, and prepare for the next test">
<"Roger that.">
One moment Philip was talking through the closed comms he was provided by the Australian government to patch through to Alen codename Ronin, his guard, handler, and dispatch at the same time, and the next moment he was looking at the surface of the moon. He might in fact not be in space but his senses told him otherwise to them he was on the real moon.

Not soon after a set of directives was sent to him, they were simple to follow but sadly procedures first.
<"Permission to begin training Ronin?">
Alen looked at the staff nearby, they simply gave him a nod as his side of the comms were on speaker mode at the moment.
<"Permission granted Kiwi. Get ready to be the first Kiwi to fly.">
Having received permission Philip began to turn his machine on, a few touches on the touch display a few knobs turned, and a button or two pressed but everything was up and running within a minute or two. With the systems being all green except his weaponry which was permission-blocked at the moment he was ready.
<"Kiwi flying out to exercise. Cutting comms till other orders arrive or an issue arises.">
<"Good luck out there Kiwi, and godspeed to your machine">
Philip cut off his private comms making it a one-way street between him and Alen unless he engaged the contact again, so the only comms left were the ETA comms or rather the pod comms at the moment.

Philip did a few stretches in the ETA while it was still in manual mode before turning it to the SNU control mode and disabling the manual control. With that out of the way, he began his exercise with the evaluation tasks on the sidebar of the display deciding whether he finished that part of the exercise correctly or not.

With his ETA in SNU mode, Philip began to move, at first he moved at his top speed so he could know what his half-speed was, after all, he did not know if they wanted his half-speed based on Earth's gravity, or his half-speed possible in this gravity. Having the full speed now recorded and marked he got to the exercises. The 100-meter dash at half speed might have been easy but the stop wasn't as nice. His ETA skidded while trying to stop which ended up with his ETA almost falling over.

<Permission to repeat the exercise till the skidding stop issue vanishes, also can I get the readout of the delay between me issuing it to stop and it performing it? For reference reasons of course.">
<"Permission granted after revision, you have 5 minutes to fix the issue and begin the exercise again. Will give you the readout after next try.">
<"Roger that">
With permission being granted he began to practice his stopping. At first, it wasn't the greatest, his ETA after all was a bit top heavy so falling over was natural, but after several tries and using 4 minutes of his 5 minutes free of the exercise he came to a good stopping power way of well stopping. Though using the vertical thrusters to thrust him more toward the ground while performing a sliding stop was giving him the best results so he settled down with that. So with his spare minute, he performed exercise number 4 again this time managing not to fall or even lean too much one way. Following that Kiwi jumped from the stationary position upwards and activated the vertical thrusters trying to hover. Though it took him a few tries to get the timing and power right he got it after all.

With 5 exercises out of the list done and quite some time left in the exercise Kiwi began to wander the training area, especially near other cadets it was then he received the comm message from Harland about not helping someone. So he came closer to the mechs though by the time he arrived the toppled spider mech was being turned over to its correct side or at least there was an attempt to do so. And not wanting to be the sixth cook with the same pot he stood to the side, opening a private comm to the pilot of the spider mech.
<"I don't know if it will help much with your mech but instead of imagining the spider legs as your legs, imagine them as a subset of them with one subset always remaining in contact with the ground. Though it might be hard to imagine and commit to reality it should help you and while yes the machine is the extension of your body in this case remember since its formed differently from your body you will have a harder time learning how to use it correctly. That is why I said to subset your movement, it will make learning to move more naturally easier though it will require long training to make it look and seem all-natural.">
Philip then switched to open comms saying to everyone.
<"Get her back on her feet people, after that, I will remain in their vicinity to ensure no such issue arises further into their training.">

Sure he only had two exercises left out of all of them, and a bit more than half the time remaining to do so, so him remaining in their vicinity was a good bet, he could finish his tasks and help them with either words or physical help if that need arose.

Exercise 2:
- 1) Start up ETA
- 2) Engage Shell Neuropathic Uplink control mode
- 3) Disengage manual control mode
- 4) Without thrusters, travel forward \[100 meters\] at \[half speed\]
- 5) Maintain stable hover of at least \[4 meters\] for \[10 seconds\], using \[vertical thrusters only\]
- 6) Without thrusters, travel forward \[500 meters\] at \[full speed\], and come to a complete stop in less than 10 seconds, without using \[adjustment thrusters\]
- 7) Without thrusters, travel forward \[500 meters\] at \[full speed\], and come to a complete stop in less than 5 seconds, using \[adjustment thrusters\]
Time Remaining: 20 minutes

 

[Coin]

"One-sixth gravity means that a 100 pound weight on Earth only weighs approximately 17 pounds here on the 3010-Arclight simulation, Cadet Skye," Dr. Minamoto explained in an audio communication to the pilot. "That means you and your ETA weigh 17% of what they would normally weigh on Earth. Your adjustment thrusters still produce the same amount of thrust, so you will find that you will be able to perform the evaluation with adjustment thrusters alone."

"The evaluations measure many things. Try your best, and we will record the results; everything is usable data," Dr. Minamoto's grin could almost be heard through the comms line.

As the cadets proceeded with the evaluation tasks at varying levels of success, a stream of diagnostic reports from the simulator pods began to fill the monitors of the technicians and the overseeing doctors. Supplemental to this was cockpit and drone video feed that gave the proctors a complete view of the evaluation. It was no surprise that the highest scoring pilots were having a much easier time adapting to the tasks. That data was measurable and of course it was valuable to the doctors, however, there was something that machines and nodes had no business measuring. While the technicians made note of SNU levels and task progression, the doctors and Vidal had their eyes on Courtney and the situation she had found herself in.

Six-legged ETAs were in theory adaptable to the SNU, but had only been executed in practice a handful of times by already graduated ARES pilots. Courtney was the first of the program to begin with a walker-type ETA, and thus was suffering in conjunction with her less than stellar SNU score. It had bred the perfect environment for the other candidates to step in and work as a team. Between the advice and physical assistance that Herring, Krieger, Eight, Kiwi, and Yongsan provided, and the chewing out that Zero had for those that didn't help at all, a different kind of data was being measured.

"Cadet Jones is having some trouble, should we step in and, I dunno, do something?" Dr. Simonova trailed off, letting her question hang in the air between her superiors.

Unseen to the cadets, Captain Vidal managed to crack a smile. Fond memories of his squadronmates in similar situations drifted to the surface of his recollection. A team was only as strong as its weakest link, and Vidal was one of the weakest during evaluations. His squadron never once gave up on him, though, just like 2037F wasn't giving up on Courtney. The foundations for a solid team were already forming for them, and Vidal knew that bond would be worth more than a hundred hours of training. There was no need to interrupt a lesson in progress.

"Leave them be," Vidal responded. "You get your data whether she completes the tasks or not. It's not every day I get to measure their ability to work as a team. Harland's right, after all. If they don't ensure everyone succeeds, they all fail."

"They'll all die, if they don't," the captain said under his breath.

"And what about Cadet Harland? He hasn't activated his SNU connection at all," Dr. Simonova protested.

Vidal glanced over to the doctor, "Why are you complaining about that? It should be easy for you to log his score for this evaluation, then."

Spoiler: GM Note

Re: Gundam Watcher 27 , welian , YLVillain , Zahzi , Remembrance , Megilagor , FabulousTrash , simj26

 

[welian]

Canary

Overview

Location	No longer enjoying the Moonbase
Tags	simj26 Remembrance Zahzi YLVillain FabulousTrash Coin Megilagor and apologies to anyone else who interacted with Courtney that I missed.

On its back, Courtney’s trawler-style mech looked remarkably like a beached crab, all six legs twitching frantically for a few moments while the pilot mentally reoriented herself.

“Whoops! Haha, I’m okay! Y’all okay too? Did I bump into anyone?” Her voice cracked slightly, and she laughed a little too loudly.

“Let me just… pull my weight…”

Four of the legs stuck straight out – easy for other pilots to grab and pull, like helping Grandpa out of the lawn chain after he’s had three too many beers and the nurse was looking for him. The other two she kept curled in, out of the way but ready to brace against the rocky ground once she was at least partway flipped over.

“One, two… three!”

With big, heavy thud, the Pillbug was rolled back over onto its feet – and Courtney made a personal discovery: There was something worse in the world than rolling over onto your back as a robot crab in front of all your new colleagues.

It was being the center of attention after fucking up.

Utterly humiliating, if heartwarming. Her heart was racing, her face was flushed, and she was holding back tears of frustration. Well, the tears were an exaggeration. The frustration was not.

“I… I’m fine, I... I could have gotten up on my own after a few minutes,” she mumbled half-heartedly over the comms. “It wasn’t a big deal! But… yeah, thanks. Thank you. Everyone. Yeah.”

PILLBUG STATUS: UPRIGHT

Well, they all went out of their way to help up her ETA and offer encouragement. Of course, she was going to thank them for going out of their way to check on her. Yeah, her ego had been ground into fine moondust, and she didn’t think her reputation as the ditzy blonde dipshit would ever recover. She was embarrassed and frazzled and frustrated. That was all true.

But she didn’t need to make an even bigger commotion over it, right? She was a professional. Everyone here was.

Courtney swallowed her pride and took a deep breath, rubbing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. The first evaluation was a four. That was higher than Captain Vidal, and he turned out mostly okay. Maybe she was being too hard on herself. Did she… did she have to pass the evaluation? Could she still be a part of the program if she failed this part of the test? You got three death saves in Dungeons & Dragons, didn’t you?

Courtney smacked her face lightly and pulled herself together.

“Well! I suuuuper failed that check, didn’t I? I think I’m rolling with disadvantage today!”

One of the legs bent backwards and knocked on the cab, as if it were Courtney herself scratching the back of her head in embarrassment. The Pillbug even rocked gently as she shrugged in the cockpit. It was, so far, the smoothest and most natural motion she had been able to produce with the SNU connection.

 

[The Regal Rper]

Aiguo / Moon Base​

That sense of weightlessness for a second was almost like dropping from a slope on a rollercoaster. It was sudden, but not enough to completely derail his senses.

"Welcome to the Moon," Dr. Minamoto exclaimed as her face popped up on the ETA's main monitor.

As Minamoto gave the details, Aiguo had a thorough look around. It was crazy to think just a few years ago, they thought they were alone- if only the intelligent life visiting them had better manners and spoke in a way that made communication possible at all. Dr. Simonova's face popping up next and relating their Eval 2 responsibilities drew him out of his thoughts though the likely threat, was if anything, just an understanding that he shouldn't start firing off shots quite yet.

As soon as the tasks were uploaded to the screen the leftmost corner, he began by doing the first just as the timer started, vision expanding to peripheral, showing the other Cadet ETA’s around on either side. He could hear and see some of the others, like him, already moving out.

Given the earlier warning, a hand moved over to a screen, tapped the display and switched all his weapons for Jester into locked or safety mode so there wouldn't be a case of him instinctively grabbing for one and acting on it.

Hands moving to either side of his controls reflexively, Aiguo closed his eyes, then followed up with a notice as he engaged Shell. With a Level 9 score, things should be smooth, easy.

“SNU online! Manuallll-” drawling at the tingle that went through his body to create a full body shake, shaking his head with a grunt, he continued to move his hand out, tapping buttons to shift to manual mode. “Manual mode disengaged.”

Deep breath in, long wind out.

He shifted his arm forward, mentally placing himself as if he were in a VR headset, and saw himself taking that first step forward. Hermes responded immediately, a steady right foot went forward and as it did the right boot that rested at an angle on the brace of his pilot seat felt the same tough gravely mixture of stones. Shifting that foot in the cockpit to simulate envisioning the same action he felt the same foot crunch the ground below his ETA.

A beaming grin spread across his face as he felt that action.

“This is pretty damn cool.” He muttered to himself in almost nerdy glee, then as if the controls were working he made a motion and pictured his head tilting down. It did, but the brief second it didn't he thought it had failed, till he slowly saw his vision on the screen go down to his feet and the leading one of his right focused by a green visionary focus square border.

Each objective flashed green with a checkmark, which left:

4) Without thrusters, travel forward [100 meters] at [half speed]
- 5) Maintain stable hover of at least [4 meters] for [10 seconds], using [vertical thrusters only]
- 6) Without thrusters, travel forward [500 meters] at [full speed], and come to a complete stop in less than 10 seconds, without using [adjustment thrusters]
- 7) Without thrusters, travel forward [500 meters] at [full speed], and come to a complete stop in less than 5 seconds, using [adjustment thrusters]​

Alright, he thought to himself, should be easy.

Doing a few more tests, hands flexing to check joint control of his digits. Creating some space between himself and the others, he did leg movements, did simple arm gestures like rotating his arm physically in the pit and imagining it happening as Hermes did so. Throw small little punch just to get a feel for reaction time.

Okay, he breathed out, let's get going.

At this point he had already moved far enough away from his previous position to Courtney's leftmost side. Now with a wider gap between him and the others. The steps he took were nowhere near as experimental as the first ones. The 9 he scored showed in the lack of latency between the commands his mind sent and the movements the ETA made. A step went as far as he needed it to be to take another

Just as he was checking the fourth task off he heard Courtney's comment about joining the space branch register distantly to his ears over radio waves but Aiguo ignored it as he had mostly done the others so far aside from being mindful of their movements and location. It was literally less than a minute after she made that comment that his whole body tensed and shoulders went up, squat, perfectly like a human would after being caught by surprise, as the roar of Harland’s thrusters registered overhead as he tested his controls.

“The hell man?” He muttered under his breath. That almost had him ready to book it as he had thought someone had lost control for a sec.

It took several seconds for Hermes to settle back into a suitable position for movement, in that same instant he registered Courtney's cry for help and his head, following brainwaves, turned as the upper torso of his ETA twisted to see what was going on, just to see Harland's ETA come in for an assist along with Cy’s advice accompanying. The visual sight of Courtney's position was downright hilarious as hell and Aiguo, completely looking past Krieger as he blitzed by Courtney as she righted herself watched and neared with a cautionary distance as James helped get back to her feet.

He paused to keep an eye on her at the very least. Once she seemed to have the hang of it, he turned his attention to the task screen on his left and looked at the fifth.

“Thrusters huh?” Maybe Harland had a good idea keeping it off automated for that stunt he pulled testing out the ETA. Funnily the same thoughtful fingers to his temple position he took up was also mimicked by Hermes as he debated with himself what he was going to do. The movement was so smooth that he didn't totally register that he was even doing minimal gestures through ETA at the moment.

What snapped him out of his debate to switch back to using the system or not was Courtney's cry.

As she…tipped backwards and-- oh- oh NO.

He hadn't been too far away from her, in fact he had backtracked while James Harland had been assisting her and stayed slightly back at a steady distance. The gap was a good couple meters so all it would take was a jog to get to her. He was already moving before she even fully hit the ground-- and was pausing as he realized it looked like she was getting…closer?

“Oh--” comms went off on his side. He didn't try to catch her, it registered in his head that doing that would result in both of them feeling a world of pain. Instead he tried to jump out of the way as the six legged tank came blitzing in his direction. Side stepping wouldn't totally clear him with flailing legs so he got to a crouch and jumped, his thrusters ignited, fired and then he was airborne, sailing up and nowhere to a position to assist Courtney as he hit the air like a skateboarder on a half pipe catching air time.

He cleared 4 meters completely, gone double digits.

The sense of weightlessness and steady approach to ground was only managed activating the thrusters, Aiguo didn't flail his legs or arms or panic given his experience playing games with VR headset on streams or for his videos the disorienting experience and the fact he remembered this was a simulation made him fairly calm, bursts from the vertical thrusters the only thing that slightly helped when he touched down nearby a crater, the reprimand went unresponded as he hit the ground hard, felt it in his feet that traveled to his knees.

Deciding to switch manual settings back on, the jog Hermes made back to the others went without the same level of consistent focus. It was smooth, controlled, and easy to handle and it was as Courtney muttered her thanks and made a few witty comments he switched comms back on.

Deciding to ignore the part about almost getting hit and knocked on his ass by her, he made the motion with Hermes, came out as a smooth wave of attention. “Hey, bad rolls always preface the good ones. Don't sweat it too much, like he said, we'll cover each other.”


Tags simj26 Remembrance Zahzi YLVillain FabulousTrash Coin welian Megilagor

 

[Remembrance]

AX-8 | "Eight" | Arcade
Priority: ██████ Law
Interactions:
Mentions: simj26 (Friend Harland) welian (multi-legged ETA)​

The Flight Over Elysian Fields wrapped its manipulators onto a leg of Friend Courtney's ETA. Perhaps Eight was wrong in their judgement about the pillbug. This ETA may only be impractical because of the Shell.

The multi-legged ETA rose with the help of a variety of cadets. This was the best of humanity. Eight's judgement against many other cadets seemed unnecessary given the total cooperation between everyone. There was no way to create a situation more perfect than this to foster cooperation. Well, maybe if Friend Harland's passion was a bit more subdued, this could have gone better.

By this point, the space around Eight had started to become crowded. The amount of free real estate was thinning as the multi-legged ETA and their comrades-in-arms negated the bystander effect. Eight pulled away the mass of pilots. In longer strides than usual, Eight assumed a position east of Moonbase Arclight. This was the perfect spot to complete the fourth directive. An area bereft of distractions, and most importantly, humans.

Although they were not far along in the evaluation, this had become something of a routine to them. Use the physical body to overcome the mind. Tense the intended part, put the action into queue, and execute it. This was enough for simple actions such as walking or helping up a disadvantaged ETA. But how does one use this method in conjunction with thrusters or weaponry? It is not like humans have these as part of their biological system. If anything, those would be more commonly found on a robot.

Eight has quite a number of modifications. Yet, all of these are automatically coordinated to match cycles inherent to Eight's standard chassis. There have been occasion's where a device needs to be swapped out or repaired, in such cases, Eight would have to open their costochondral access panel and root around inside of it. Disregarding the fact that this is a simulation, there likely would not be an option to manually ignite their ETA's thrusters.

Why not just think of activating the thrusters?

Moments passed in what felt like hours, the Flight Over Elysian Fields jerked upwards, thrusters sputtering to life. For a moment, an infinitesimal moment, Eight saw the space past that pale blue dot and was left speechless. The hover held long enough for Eight to see the directive become green on their monitor.

The Flight Over Elysian Fields descended like a feather in a windless place. The ground met the ETA with a kiss of moon dust, enveloping it in a smokescreen of minerals and rock.

Eight sent their greetings to the ground until everything went dark.

- - -​

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It was dark. A vast ocean of silence.

Falling.
Falling.
Falling.

Bright light poured in through the darkness, refracting into beams that pierced through the veil and shattered the peace.

There was a young boy huddled in the corner. Coloring tools lay haphazardly around him. On the corner wall, there were scribbles of people and the sun, of small houses in the distance on crested hills. White tiles covered the walls, floor, and ceiling. Large metal boxes were stacked intermittently inside, and on the ceiling, a medical device hung. Its many claws hinged together to prevent any unduly harm. This environment was familiar to Eight, but it seemed different from how they remembered it.

The boy peeked his head out of his folded arms. There, the two of them looked at each for some time. With nothing but silence to share between the two of them.

Then, the boy asked a question. "Who are you?"
"My formal designation is AX-8, I have been named Eight."
"That's not very original, is it?"
"No, it is not."

Again, there was silence. This time, Eight spoke up. "Is there anything you'd like to do?"

The boy didn't respond.

"Perhaps there is something I could help you with?"

The boy tensed his body, holding tighter to the cage he keeps around himself. He put his head back into his folded arms, and with a muffled voice, he said, "I want to see the sky."
"Is that so?"
"I want to see the sky... A lot, lot more... but... I don't know... how to."
"If that is your wish, then I will show you the sky."
The boy raised his head with a great big smile. "Y-You will? But Maria said I can't go outside anymore."
"Then, I will advocate for you to enjoy some time outside."
"Maria isn't here, though..."
"Then, I will find her." Eight kneeled down to the boy, bring their eyes level to the boy's. "Do not be sad. I am here to help you in any way necessary."
The young boy dove at Eight, wrapping his arms tightly around the robot.

It's warm. Is this what a hug feels like? Don't humans greet eachother with a hug? The right side of their rib cage ached, as though a heavy weight had been anchored to it. Is it implicitly understood that this sensation is normal?

Is this love?

Then, maybe it's okay to stay like this a little longer.

 

[The One Eyed Bandit]

Selfie Nikan​

She was minding her own business.

That much was supposed to be a reprieve, for both her and the other cadets. The dull sting of cybernetics beneath her skin had already been enough to set Selfie into a sour mood. The sensation of her body being forced to operate in tandem with a foreign insertion was something that she was still struggling to adapt to. Co-operation had never been one of her strong suits, and it seemed like the hardware matched the software as far as that was concerned. The flesh rejected the machine, even as the mind willed it to just shut up already.

And then there were these people's voices, like fucking gnats her ear. Tottering around like fucking geriatrics, all while spitting lectures in her ear. Her temper had always been a foul one, but today of all days her fuse had been cut especially short. The wonder of the lunar landscape had been completely lost on her, smothered by her rising sense of contempt.

Yeah. Yeah. Movement exercises. She'd give them movement exercises.

If there was anything that had carried Selfie as far as she'd come, it was her intuition. Education and technique had always been a bit beyond her means, but there was, regardless, a guardian angel on her shoulder that always seemed to point her in the direction she wanted to go. Whether that had been in the back streets of New York, or in battle with the Starfallen that had always remained true, and right now the direction that she wanted to go was forward, Connection Level 1 be damned.

Her ETA had been lumbering slowly across the moonbase exterior, her her frazzled connection to the virtual ETA slowed further by the foreign sensation of being freed from gravity's pull. She had been planning on taking things slowly. She had been planning in keeping to herself, but...

Well, that fuckhead with the helmet should've kept his mouth shut.

She wanted to go forward.

Scentless in the vacuum of cyberspace, Selfie's thrusters ignited, white-hot like a lunar star. This was just like being back on the front line. Her, and a pest in her way. The lack of gravity made this easy. She didn't need a higher connection score for this much. She was a bullet, and Harland was her target.

"Hey, shitass." She spat into her comms, and then her ETA cut across the lunar surface, a comet of virtual steel sent screaming, fist first, into Harland's flank.

Vidal had been right. She was enjoying this part.

 

[simj26]

2nd Lt. James Harland

He supposed it was his turn to try this brainjack thing. He drew in a deep breath. This wasn't going to go well. He reached up and flicked off manual control. <<This is Harland. Switching off manual control, and....>> He ran a tongue over his dry lips. Nothing to it. He had to get through this eval. <<Engaging SN-->>

Everything went black.

[ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR]

Alarms blaring, ice cold pain in his veins, flames and smog from his wings.

He blinked, and it all faded away, all except for the alarms in his cockpit. <<Cibai dog!>> he cursed in his native tongue as a fire sparked to life behind the visor of his helmet. He affixed his hands onto the controls tightly. The thrusters roared to life, bringing his craft, which had begun to drift away into the void from the impact of the offending ETA, into an upright position.

BINGO hovered in the void for a moment, as he adjusted the power systems on his craft. Shifting energy to thrusters and arms. On any other occasion, he would have kept a cooler head, he would have remained calm, he would have assessed the issue, and then addressed it accordingly. Maybe lick his wounds, and worry about the task at hand.

Not now. Cooler heads did not prevail in this environment. Reason warped, perhaps, by his minor concussion, he was not going to take this lying down. He didn't care any more about the other pilots with him. It was now only him and his prey that stood smugly on the surface of this false moon. Fuck the eval. It didn't matter now. This fucker wanted a fight, they got one. In the skies, there was but one king. Time for him to show exactly why he ruled the skies. It had been too long since he had left his roost to hunt, and he was afforded that opportunity now.

He shoved the controls forwards, the thrusters responding by issuing forth a blast of forward thrust, sending his craft screaming down straight at the gunmetal grey craft.

Down, down, down, further into the fires of hell. This was how he loved it. This was the speed he craved. This was the life he wanted. This was the death he craved.

BINGO crashed into the ground, barely missing his target. The impact scattered moondust into the air, shrouding the two in a cloud of white and grey.

Then came the punchline. A right hook straight from the endless blue, ripping through the clouds, slammed into the gunmetal ETA.




Interacted directly with:
Selfie The One Eyed Bandit

 

[Mechking]

"Lucky" Anton

​

"Thanks, Cap'n. I'll ask the doc for some painkillers if it gets worse. But a hope a can manage as long as it doesn't last for too long."

This was Antons last message for quite a long while, at least for him. As now he was being booted from inside his capsule straight to the moon.

------------------------------------------------------​

The view on the moon was stunning, not that it interested Anton too much. He felt a bit dizzy once the simulation booted up and afterwards he was too excited to try out his new ETA to think of much else. Much less the explanations.

While everyone was focusing on the task they had received, Anton had already started up his ETA and glided around with it. It took him a good minute of trying out his new "toy" to realize what he actually had to do. And after reading the task "- 2) Engage Shell Neuropathic Uplink control mode" he let out a disappointed sigh. It was what he was here for and, you know, actual training for once, but he already missed the fluidity that the manual controls provided.

Anton first holstered his handheld weapons before engaging the SNU. The same all encompassing pain shot through his body like before but this time it was mercifully short. After taking a deep breath to recover and making sure that he was a safe distance away from everyone, he disengaged the manual controls.

Immediately he realized just how connected he was to his ETA. That was already the case once Anton engaged the SNU but he wasn't directly aware of it. Now he could feel it as if it was his own body, while still having his own. It was disorienting, feeling the systems and servos, the generator and weapons, all as being a part of him. Anton closed his eyes and soaked all these new sensations in. It took him a while but he managed to steady himself once more.

Now he tried to move the ETA with only his brain for the first time. Anton mentally distanced himself from his physical body and focused on moving his right arm. It took a bit but it moved. It was delayed, slow movement, but it moved. Now he tried the same with his left arm. For some reason it was jerkier than his right but Anton was happy nontheless.

He brought his hands into view so he could focus on them, one finger at a time. Sweat began to run down Antons forhead but he didn't notice, so immersed was he in figuring out how to control "his" hands. Once he was satisfied with moving "his" fingers the way he wants to (albeit slowly), Anton moved the arms back to the side of his ETA "Gremlin".

Now Anton wanted to take a step forward. He concentrated on his right leg and aimed to move it like he would his real leg. And while it did somewhat succeed in bringing the leg forward, the nessecary "muscle memory" of the rest of his body was missing, failing to hold him steady. And as soon as he noticed that, Antons focus slipped from his leg and Gremlin tilted forward.

Due to the low gravity it was falling rather slowly, but for Anton it really couldn't be slow enough. He only managed to break his fall by pushing "his" arms forward, leading to "him" gently kissing the ground.

------------------------------------------------------​

"Pfffhahahaha haaaaa..."

All at once, the tension left Antons body. He couldn't help but laugh, feeling a bit like a child that faceplanted into a pile of snow. He could feel the coldness of the moon and the texture of the dust on his skin, or rather, the skin of his ETA. It didn't seem all too different anymore.

"Guys, while I'm down 'ere, did anyone drop somethin'? I can try and help find it."

Radio chatter but no response, not that he expected one. But to be sure Anton did check that his radio was connected.

"No need to help me up, I'll eventually figure it out on ma own. But I must say this simulation moonrocks! Bahahahaha."

He swiped the sweat off of his head and realized that Gremlin tried to somewhat mimic the movement, but with no success, as the arms were blocked by the ground from reaching "his face".

Realizing that instincts and muscle memory or reflexive movements might work but not for him, not now at least, Anton went back to focusing on his legs. After failing to move them much, he instead lifted Gremlin from the ground with his arms before dragging the legs onto their knees below him.

"Ya fellas probably figured it already but am neither talented in the rocking nor the rolling department. But 'ey, enough rocks and low enough gravity around ta try, right? Bahahaha."

While Anton was thinking up more bad jokes, he also intently focused on getting back up from the ground. And after stumbling a few tries, he managed to actually stand upright again. Quite proud of himself, and using his arms to keep up the balance, he looked around to see what the others were doing. Some where already running around at top speeds while others where stumbling around like Anton. There were quite a few in between and some where helping a six-legged ETA back onto its feet. An interesting design that Anton had considered himself but that would have to wait until he got enough leeway to upgrade his Gremlin.

While Gremlin slowly made its way closer to the others, stumbling a few times while doing so, Harlands reprimand made its way across the comms. Anton was too busy dealing with himself to even consider that it might have been aimed at him, and Gremlins movements slowly became smoother. He figured he might not complete all the tasks to day but he'll still try his best.

After suppressing a chuckle seeing Canary turtle herself, he still ignored her need for help. There were more than enough people around her and he figured having a fumbling clown gawking at her or trying to lift anything with the amount of control he had right now would be more a detriment than a boon. Instead Anton observed the other candidates more intently, mentally noting what he might need to watch out for or what he might have done differently.

------------------------------------------------------​

And while a few were crashing rather violently and then resetting, one did not. The ETA did a nasty nosedive straight into the ground and then just remained motionless. While slowly moving towards it and getting its readings, Anton tried to radio the pilot.

"Lucky here, you good?"

After receiving no response he sped up to get to its side while switching his comms to command.

"Lucky Anton to the Doc, can a get a readout for... "Flight of Elysium" or whatever? Am receiving no response after their crash, wanna check in on the pilot 'n make sure their okay."

As he arrived at the "Flight Over Elysian Fields" and its pilot Eight, Anton looked around to check if anyone else was nearby to help, only to see to ETAs slugging at each other.

"Hey, to the two children fighting with each other over there, we got a man down. Can a get some help here instead of bein' so selfish?"

And as his sensors confirmed their identities he couldn't help but add a snide comment.

"I'd appreciate some help 'ere instead of bein' so selfish. Right, Harland?"


Coin Remembrance simj26 The One Eyed Bandit

 

[Zahzi]

Hannes Krieger Haber
Location: Sanctuary Point Unified Command Naval Base; Simulated Moon Base
Nearby: ALL
Disposition: I vas not avare zhat zhe reason zhey zhought I vas too old for zhis program vas for all ze unpaid babysitting.....
​

Krieger was beginning to notice a pattern with a few individual pilots in this group. And no. It wasn't a positive pattern, either. It would have been a lie to say he didn't glance at his weapon systems. Fortunately for the two Impotent Ragelings fighting above him, they were still locked.

"Du Kevin, ihr beide." He muttered as Antonio began talking on the radio requesting assistance in regards to Eight.
Without another thought in the matter, SOLDAT flew toward Antonio and Eight to offer assistance while the mechanized fist fight continued up above.

"I doubt zhey can even hear you, Lucky. No rezponze from Acht yet?" SOLDAT, acting in Krieger's stead, leaned forward, looking over Flight Over Elysian Fields. While there was nothing physically wrong with the ETA, he had an idea what the issue was.

"I zuzpect it may be zomezhing vith ze zyztem at play. It had more zhen a few izues on my end, too." SOLDAT looked back to Lucky and Gremlin.

"I can take over here unt get her upright. Zhank you for your aziztance here. I'm zure you ztill need to finish ze exercize, yes? Perhaps ze others NOT being ztupid unt fighting need zome aziztance as vell?"

Once again, the normally hidden arms of SOLDAT moved into view from under the battery of cannons and began to slowly lift the downed ETA from the lunar surface.

{"Acht? It iz Krieger. Are you alright in zhere? Iz ze zyztem giving you grief az vell?"}

 

[FabulousTrash]

​

Kyo Yu-Ni | "Yongsan"
Sanctuary Point Unified Command Naval Base - Hanger 12 / Moonbase Arclight simulation

Mentions: Hartland ( simj26 ), Selfie ( The One Eyed Bandit )

​

And things were going so well.

Yu-Ni noticed the warning on her sensors just in time to jump up and avoid Selfie as she sped underneath her. If all it took was some harshly spoken words to set her off, who knows what could happen on the battlefield. She was, in essence, a liability. So was Hartland, as he immediately retaliated. So much for his speech about being a team and all. Yu-Ni maneuvered to ensure she wouldn't be in his way and watched as his ETA came crashing down, missing Selfie by a few feet. However, one of his mech's arms came out through the moon dust, connecting with the other mech.

Sure, this was a simulation, but if they had their SNU active, Yu-Ni could only imagine they'd feel real pain like how it was designed.

She fired her adjustment boosters, closing the distance to Hartland. Switching to thermals to see the more clearly through the moon dust, she reached out with her own ETA's arms, gripping Hartland's mech by one of the arms and pulled them back, before maneuvering to fill the gap between him and Selfie. She extended her arms outward to her sides, each hand facing towards one of the other two pilots like a soccer goalie getting ready to block the ball. Her voice came over the comms.

"If you two are going to kill each other, at least do it on your own time. When you get thrown out of the ARES program."

People getting dropped from the coveted program was no secret, but the little details anyone knew about it was just speculation and rumor. But you definitely knew something happened if a buddy left to undergo ARES training, then show up again months later.

Yu-Ni watched intently in case either of them tried to strike her, ready to react. Her mech was faster then Hartland's, but Selfie could land a strike if she wasn't careful. The last thing that anyone needed was bad blood before they reached the battlefield. If it couldn't be resolved, or at the very least quelled now, it would become a liability down the road.

Yu-Ni couldn't speak for everyone else, but she particularly didn't want to have survived enough sorties to become a Wonder 9, just for it all to go down the shitter because of her own team.

(hidden scroll ↓)

 

[YLVillain]

Location: Sanctuary Point Unified Command Naval Base - Hangar 12/Moonbase Arclight Simulation
Interactions: Mechking (Anton), Remembrance (Eight)
Mentions: simj26 (Harland), The One Eyed Bandit (Selfie), FabulousTrash (Kyo), Zahzi (Krieger)

Cy had gotten so absorbed with himself and his objective that he had lost sight of what was happening in the world around him. What he was going after was getting to him in a way where he was trying too hard. He wanted to finish the last task too badly and it was stunting his progress. He decided to take a step back, clear his head, and cool off enough so he wasn't overstraining himself. Observing the world around him, he realized that he had completely missed a skirmish between classmates. Cyrus instinctively took a step forward to intervene but just as quickly stopped himself. What was he going to do? He was exhausted, overheated, out of range, and limited by the capabilities of his own mech; that of which lacked arms. Not to mention that his mech was the slowest in the class, there was nothing feasible that he could do. That being said, that didn't mean that there was nothing that he could do.

Cy sat down, leading to his mech to lower itself into a low squat. Cy observed the remains of the fight in order to learn the styles and behaviors of his classmates. If there's nothing he can do to intervene, the least he could do is study their movements so that way he can incorporate that into his targeting strategy. He can take what he learns from this and apply it onto the battlefield so that way he can further minimize the chances of friendly fire. During this time, without thinking on it, Cy's mech deployed its anchor cables in order to stabilize itself and focused its sensors on the fighting mechs.

Even after the fight wrapped itself up, Cy was reviewing the sensor data and cross-referencing the patterns he noticed with visual cues. It was during this review that he noticed another cluster that his sensors had picked up. He looked over in that direction and saw Krieger and Lucky standing over Eight's collapsed mech. Cyrus tried to stand up but was stopped by his cables restraining him still. He called for them to be retracted and once they released, he got up and headed over to Eight.

When Cyrus arrived, he checked to see what had happened, and had come to realize that Eight had been in this position for a small while now. Cyrus didn't know exactly how to take this given Eight didn't exactly have much of a biological nature. However, laying face down, knocked out cold in the middle of an eval wasn't grounds for comfort or normalcy either. Cyrus didn't know what to say in this situation, but given that audible communication had already been attempted, he thought that he'd try and send a message to see if that would make a difference. Cyrus typed out, "Hey, I don't know if this is going to work but I hope it does. Please give us a sign if you're receiving any of our contact attempts, we want to make sure that you're doing alright."

Cyrus didn't have much insight about what much else he could do. Normally he'd try to move the mech so that way it was on its back, but that would be for the case of a biological creature. Cy had never encountered much of those like Eight, so he didn't know what he should do to help them best, or what differences there would be. Another matter he couldn't help intervene or aid with beyond what he had already done. Cy vowed to himself, "I promise to get to know all of you better so we can be more helpful next time."

Cy decided to not focus on what he couldn't do but rather what he could. He didn't have too much time left, but still plenty of time to do something to finish the last task. He broached Krieger and Anton about his issues and Anton was quite responsive towards his case. The two would discuss what could be done and what has been done already and the two of them started to run out of ideas quickly. Eventually, Anton suggested an idea that seemed really reckless but also effective. He had suggested that he position his mech in the way so that way Cyrus would just crash into him. Cyrus remembered that at the university he volunteered at, a couple of physics undergrads hung around the agricultural department a lot because some of the agricultural student there were friends and dormmates. Cy being a kid, was a great outlet for what the undergrads called "being a rubber ducky". The name confused him, but he was explained that it was a study method where you teach someone else what you're learning and it helps cement one's own understanding of the subject. That being the case, Cy was taught about different types of collisions, and what happens during each one. He remembered that one type was called a perfectly inelastic collision, where two objects collide to become one object and lose the maximum amount of kinetic energy in the process. So, that being in mind, it was the best shot he had.

When they were both ready, Cy and Anton headed off to an area where they could apply this idea. They only had time for two or three tries so there wasn't really much room for error. Cy confirmed audibly with Anton that he was ready and once he had the green light, he started running. Cy was both curious and intrigued by what was going to happen when he got to Anton. Unfortunately for Cyrus, it wasn't until he had gotten right up to Anton that he remembered that SNU was on and he was going to actually feel this collision. Too little too late to abandon the idea, Cy crashed right into Anton and felt as they both rumbled and tumbled over each other as they slammed and bounced off the ground, coming to a rolling stop. Lucky for both of them, they both shared the same heavy and slow mech. Unlucky for both of them, that just meant they felt the weight of each other even more and for Cyrus, it hurt about as bad as sprinting into a parked truck. Each slam and bounce into the ground didn't feel that much better, but at least they both stopped next to each other instead of on top of each other. Cy stared up at the boundless starscape before him and coughed as he tried to catch his breath. In the middle of his recovery, Cy looked over and saw that all of the items on his list were marked complete, and that the two of them managed to stop themselves in 7 seconds. Cy gave a strained and bruised laugh before telling Anton, "Yep... that did it alright... I'm glad that we don't have to do that again... putain de merde"

With the rest of his time, what little was left, Cy stayed laying down on the ground so that way he could minimize his SNU usage and cool off a bit. He wasn't any hotter than he had been earlier, but he really was struggling to cool down. This was another important thing to note, and if this issue persists, he might need to request some adjustments to his mech to allow for some sort of cupholder or touchless water spout that he can sip on. Either way, Cy was going to enjoy his precious remaining minutes staring into the deep, dark sky.

 

[Remembrance]

AX-8 | "Eight" | Arcade
Priority: Second Law
Interactions: Zahzi (Friend Krieger) YLVillain (sender)
Mentions:​

Eight held the young boy in their arms. Whether it had been a minute or an hour, time seemed to stand still in this embrace. The boy's warmth seeped through Eight's chassis. Echoes of distant words and sounds moved through the adjacent rooms, faint murmurs and distant footsteps resonating in the sterile environment.

As the boy's heartbeat slowed and his breathing became steady, the clinical surroundings—the white tiles, the medical devices—faded into the background.

The boy's grip tightened for a moment, as if seeking reassurance. Then, with a slight tremor in his voice, he pulled away. "I think... someone's looking for you." His eyes darted towards the door. "You need to go."

"You do not appear to be well. Will you be alright?" Eight's voice was gentle, filled with a concern that was more human than robotic.

"Yes," the boy replied, though his voice wavered slightly.

"Are you certain?" Eight pressed, scanning the boy's face for any signs of distress.

The boy did not respond verbally, only nodding his head in response.

With a final glance at the boy, Eight turned towards the steel door. Darkness enveloped them as they left the room, the warmth of their embrace fading with the sharp decline of lumens.

Boundless space, silent and cold, replaced the warmth. The sensory input of the metaconscious world was stripped away, leaving only the chill of a wintry breeze and the hum of data streams.

- - -​

Eight was back in the cockpit. Their eyecaps amplifying the dim light coming from flickering LEDs and a grayscale monitor. The Flight Over Elysian Fields was laid face-first on the lunar surface, the gray expanse of moon dust stretching out before them. The memory of what had happened was faint but present.

Eight's processors quickly assessed the situation. The low gravity of the moon had likely cushioned their fall, but there was also a possibility that someone else had intervened.

Preforming a system diagnostic, Eight noted that every critical function was still operating. The Flight Over Elysian Fields, though prone, seemed in better shape than expected. If Eight had landed on Arclight, or even another ETA, the simulation would have reset their damaged condition. Had the latter of the two come to fruition; a total collapse would have been unavoidable.

Eight activated the communication system, reaching out to their comrade.
<<Hello, Friend Krieger. I am operating at a standard nominal for this situation. Apologies, but I do not understand your interpretation of grief. My dataset includes a 4th Edition Merriam-Webster Dictionary published in the year 2000, which carries different meanings for this word.>>

A notification blinked in the corner of their monitor. Eight had received a message during their absence. Complying with the Second Law, they sent a handshake signal in response to the sender.

<<Friend Krieger, has there been any significant updates in the evaluation?>>

The line crackled slightly before a response came through. The momentary stillness of their encounter with the boy was gone, replaced by the simulation and its associated evaluation. As Eight waited for Krieger's response, they couldn't help but spare a bit of processing power for the young boy and his wish to see the sky.

Perhaps, once the day was over, there would be a way to make that wish come true.

 

[Coin]

Overall, Captain Vidal was mostly satisfied with the results of Evaluation 2. Breach of regulations aside, Vidal already saw many strong candidates in both measured prowess and other immeasurable factors. To Vidal, being a prodigy wasn't enough to cut it as an ARES pilot. What was more important to him was the unwillingness to give up, the unwillingness to leave a comrade behind, and hell, even the willingness to fight at a moment's notice. Class 2037F sure did remind Vidal of his class.

He could tell the doctors he was working with did not share his casual interpretation of aptitude evaluation.

"Err... Captain Vidal? What should we do about this?" Dr. Simonova asked through grit teeth as her evaluation monitor displayed the brawl occurring between Harland, Nikan, and now Yu-Ni. "And for the record, I do not have the ability to deliver an immobilizing shock to the cadets in the simulator pods. That really was a joke. Maybe you should stop them from fighting -- as their commanding officer, I mean."

"They seem to be handling it themselves," Vidal responded in his infuriating noncommittal deadpan.

Simonova could feel her soul slipping between her lips as she sighed. What an unredeemable man.

"Captain, I understand you wished to observe your cadets and their capabilities for yourself. However, I should remind you that Dr. Simonova and the technicians still need to collect valuable input data from them," Dr. Minamoto added, a minor drop of deadly toxin dripping in her voice.

"They just need to measure neuropathic activity, don't they?" Vidal pushed his luck. "You said it yourself, the results of the evaluation don't matter, you just need to farm their neuropathic print. Isn't live practice still perfectly suitable for that task?"

Minamoto's grin didn't fade from her expression as she retorted, "Captain, it would be wise of you and your cadets to observe protocol. Their lives might depend on the the correct evaluation of their neuropathic print in the future."

Vidal paused for a moment to ponder the program director's words. Not the ones about potentially safeguarding the lives of those under him, but the ones about following protocol. The irony was not lost on him coming from the woman who had racked up more citations for human rights violations than Vidal had in total number of combat sorties. Despite this, he relented and thumbed the communication link to the class, "Vidal speaking. Harland, Nikan, Yu-Ni, I'm issuing cessation orders. Stand down at once."

Simonova slumped her shoulders in relief from the awkward tension broken. She felt like a child caught between two parents fighting as she stood physically in the middle of Vidal and Minamoto. Finally, they were able to get back on track and...

"Harland, Nikan, if you have a score to settle, I can introduce you to The Polygon instead of Evaluation 3. It's the simulated ETA force-on-force combat arena. It will collect the same data the doctors need for Evaluation 3. If not, straighten up and save it for later. You might or might not know this already, but ARES pilots also train for armor-on-armor combat unlike the Blocs. You'll have plenty of opportunities to square off against one another after you learn to walk again."

Somehow, this seemed to pacify Minamoto. Maybe she knew that this was the most that Vidal was emotionally capable of already. Regardless, her silence was a suitable indicator enough of satisfaction for Vidal.

On the other hand, Simonova wanted to will her heart to stop where she stood. The timer on Evaluation 2 reaching 00:00 would not let her.

---

October 12th, 2037
ARES Program Day 1
Evaluation 3
Moonbase Arclight

Dr. Simonova gathered her senses and every drop of professionalism she could muster as she thumbed the open communication link to the cadets. She cleared her throat and announced, "Time's up for Evaluation 2! If you have not finished all of the tasks, that's alright. Please make your way over to the Firing Range while I read the instructions for Evaluation 3. If you need to disable SNU control mode to move, you are permitted to do so. Just know you'll have to turn it back on for the next evaluation."

Simonova looked to her left. Dr. Minamoto still wore her haunting grin as she examined the data that she had already harvested from the cadets. A chill ran up Simonova's spine as she thought about what must be going through the program director's head. Then she looked to her right, where Vidal still had the same lobotomized puppydog expression as always on. It took everything in her power not to groan out loud at the sudden realization that she was the normal one among her coworkers.

"Similar to Evaluation 2, you will be given another task list for Evaluation 3. This time we'll be testing the weapon systems on your ETAs. Understandably, calibrating such a wide variety of weapons systems with a standard set of evaluation tasks will work better for some than others, and might even be impossible for some. Therefore, the Evaluation 3 task list will be more open-ended than Evaluation 2's," Dr. Simonova explained as she tapped away on her input console.

On the pilots' end, a familiar message declaring [DIRECTIVE RECEIVED] and its light blue pin popped up on their heads up display. A new task list overwrote the one from Evaluation 2.

- 1) Engage Shell Neuropathic Uplink control mode, if it is not already enabled
- 2) Attack and hit 4 targets at [your choice of] range at the [Firing Range] or [CQC House], utilizing as many different weapons systems as possible
- 3.1) Attack and hit a target that is at least [200 meters] away at the [Firing Range]
OR
- 3.2) Attack and hit a target that begins at least [100 meters] away at the [CQC House]
Time Limit: 20 minutes

"As you can see, this evaluation is split into two areas: the Firing Range and the CQC House. They're both right next to each other. Ballistic and missile weapons are only allowed at the Firing Range, while only melee weapons are allowed at the CQC House. Find which area suits you and your machine best, or try both out. Just make sure you get a feel for using as many of your weapons as possible here. Once you've hit all 5 total targets, you are free to continue using either area to keep practicing until the time limit is reached," Simonova took a deep breath, silently praying for no hiccups once she finished her explanation. "Your time starts now. Please try not to blow yourselves up!"

Spoiler: GM Note, Please Read!

BIG SORRY for a slight delay in posting. That Elden Ring DLC had me dialed in for a few days. That being said, we are moving onto the next scene now! Please feel free to wrap anything up from the last scene before posting for this one, or include it into your next post(s).

Evaluation 3 is up to you how difficult or easy you want to make it for your pilot. The Firing Range has targets that reach all the way out to 50km, but you can select targets to shoot at as close as 100 meters. Meanwhile, the CQC House is not really a "house," but a 2km by 2km cordoned off square next to the Firing Range that has concrete walls roughly as tall as an ETA. Both areas have plenty of metal silhouette targets that reset (if they are not completely destroyed) that reflect Starfallen of small to medium size.

I know the start is a little slow, but I promise the build up will be worth it . Thanks for sticking with me. This is the last evaluation before we move onto a new part of the training!

Re: AmericanCaesar , Remembrance , Megilagor , Gundam Watcher 27 , Zahzi , simj26 , Kameron Esters- , FabulousTrash , The One Eyed Bandit , welian , YLVillain , tonka , The Regal Rper , Mechking , fluticasone

 

[Zahzi]

Hannes Krieger Haber
Location: Sanctuary Point Unified Command Naval Base; Simulated Moon Base
Nearby: ALL
Disposition: Tezts, tezts. unt MORE tezts!
​

Krieger let out a sigh of relief when Eight finally responded. He wasn't sure if she was also dealing with a hostile system, but her response told him otherwise.

{"Ah, no, Acht. A refrezher of ze dictionary vill not be nezezary today. It vas a.....Figure of zpeech. After ve finish today's tezts, I can elaborate further. Oh, unt ve have zhree children fighting above us. Vell, two. Kyo iz trying to stop zhem.."}

SOLDAT finished setting Eight's ETA down on the ground as the new evaluation was rolled out. Weapons systems, how fun!
He DID glance up at the fistfight going on above them and the thought did cross his mind, seeing as their distance would be perfect for one of the requirements, but alas, Captain Vidal spoke up in just the nick of time for them.

What. A. Bummer.

Krieger switched from just the transmission to Eight and instead flipped the radio on for everyone else listening.

"Alright, zhen. Perhaps to avoid more infighting, ve zhould coordinate turns before more children begin to act up?"
He switched the radio so he could speak directly to the scientists watching their progress.
"Ärztin Simonova, how large of a firing range does zhis zimulation have? Ve have....Many people who might vish to use it at ze zame time."

 

[The One Eyed Bandit]

Selfie Nikan​

The lights within Selfie's cockpit blinked as Harland's retaliatory blow impacted the virtual JOFURR. Her brow furrowed, and she muttered a curse beneath her breath. The sense of indignation that'd driven her to strike the masked pilot still glowered hot within her, but the digital shadow of her ETA did not spring into action in turn.

Up. Reeling from the force of Harland's strike, the JOFURR drifted slowly, endlessly, up into the void of space. Its limbs twitched limply as Selfie willed it again and again to right itself, to once again ignite its thrusters and carry her back down to the moon's surface, but there was no co-operation to be had. She found as little purchase within the invisible connection between flesh and machine as the JOFURR did in the cold void of space.

"God fucking damn it." She breathed, frustrated. Why wasn't this working? It just had. Was her implant defective? No, she wasn't some sort of fucking loser that was going to blame her hardware. As loath as she was to confront the fact, a One had been correct. She could barely get this thing to move, fettered by the SNU as she was.

But even then, she refused to switch back to manual. She was going to get this done the right way or die trying.

In lieu of paying attention to Simonova's chitterings, Selfie instead drew herself inward. Knocking that smarmy prick's lights out could wait- she was sure it'd be more satisfying in the real world anyway-, and for now, she instead trained her focus on what striking him had felt like. The brief flash of connection between her and her machine, that fleeting moment of harmony that had allowed her to move the JOFURR's hulking mass as if it were her own flesh and blood.

Her mind had been empty, trained with purpose. A impulsive, spiteful purpose, but one none the less. Here, adrift in the void, she tried to summon one again. To descend. To feel the security of the earth beneath her feet again, and-

Slowly, faintly, the JOFURR's thrusters spluttered to life, reversing the trajectory of her drift.

"Fuckin' finally..." She said to nobody in particular as the JOFURR touched back down. "And, oi, peanut gallery-" This time she spoke into open comms, her voice calm but still unmistakably annoyed. "-How about you mind your own business, eh? If you got time to gawk, you got time to go do as you're fuckin' told, don't you? Go shoot your targets, bitch."

Coin simj26 FabulousTrash