As the pilots were mingling and talking, one girl had sat quietly in a chair at the far corner of the room. Not interacting. Not saying a word to show her presence. Keeping her eyes closed as if asleep. She merely was either truly asleep, processing whatever information she had studied or perhaps was merely waiting for the call to suit up. Regardless, she just continued to sit there...until.

[b]"All personnel, prepare for the start of Operation: Mock Battle. Cadets, your plugsuits are in the changing rooms next to the Framewerk hangars. Suit up, prepare for deployment, and wait for further instructions. System checkups and communications are permitted."[/b]

On that announcement, her eyes opened. Standing up at attention, she merely walked out of the briefing hall like the other pilots and made her way to the womens changing room area. Again, she said not a word as she put on her plugsuit.

She then made her way out to the frameworks hangar where she approached her framework: Model Code "R-1" but codenamed "Setsuka".

For this pilot, she knew that she would be fighting three battles like she aways knew...with her enemies...herself...and her framework's combat system.

[i]...remember seven...on the battlefield, a warrior must always remain detached...emotions will get you killed at the worst possible time...[/i]

Be it an actual mission or even a simple mock battle or training, Mai would always remember one of many harsh lessons like the one she just remembered from her old frameworks division. Granted, even she had once thought that they were harsh but she also admitted that SOME of the things she was taught held truth. But that's not what her new superiors wanted. They wanted teamwork, synching with pilots and anything to show that she was more than just a one-man army killing machine.

And she also knew that going through this battle solo would be suiside even for her. She WAS listening to the other pilots talk back in the briefing room but she wondered how long the alliances would last before one idiot decided to shoot his/her teammate in the back. After all, there can be only one winner. But to do this to determine a "leader"? Much like the other pilots, she had also mentally questioned that.

But her superiors had made her mission crystal clear to her...there can be only one victor.

As she approached, the engineers and scientists assigned to her mech waved as she approached. All of them simply saluted and some even gave her a thumbs up as if to say her machine was ready.

She returned the salute before she hopped onto a mobile lift. The operator then raised her up to the cockpit near the chest where Mai entered and promptly closed when she was seated. Putting on her special black helmit, she then started up her machine.

As Mai did the routine systems check, comm's check and the usual stuff, she then closed her eyes as the system began to run what one of her scientists dubbed a "synhro test check".

When it was finished, she observed the information on her main screen.

"...current synchro rate...seventy perfect...inefficient for T-link combat system...", Mai droned into her comm line.

"It happens Seven but like in the past, once the battle starts, it'll raise up due to your concentrative focus. You'll just have to use basic hand-to-hand tatic's if necessary but use your magnums when you see opportunities. In other words, the usual", the scientist on her team replied.

"...understood sir...standing by...", Mai replied.

Switching from a private comm link to an open one, she decided to see if any of the other pilots would be using it to communicate with each other.