“Contact right.”
A stream of lasers lit up the darkened virtual world, barely missing Garret’s Ranger. Evaluating the source of the attack, he pushed his Mech into a dive for one on the downed buildings. The simulated Ranger acknowledged his thought patterns and manual control instructions and swiftly leapt forward into cover, pressing against the fallen structure per its pilot’s instinctive desire. The enemy that had engaged him was a poorly AI-maned Avenger and was the last remaining target of this exercise program.
Garret swore that while the Mechs in the simulation operated as they should in reality, the training AIs, more like simple programmed drones with a dull sense of logic, put up a rather uninteresting and predictable fight. If anything, this was more like target practice whereas the targets would try to kill you but end up missing most of the time. Garret deduced the Avenger was roughly fifty meters away from the point of contact; just enough distance to accurately score at least a hit on him. The Allied Jupiter Engineering programmer who organized this world and its mechanics must not have been paid too well.
The Ranger’s sensors picked up the Avenger advancing on his position; the tall Mech was no doubtedly looking to obtain a proper line of sight before engaging Garret once more. While his opponent was much more massive than his own Mech, if not by a whole two meters, it was however slower and somewhat clumsier given the narrow road it show to advance down on. This advantage would be deadly against the Avenger to exploit just as long as the AI was not aware of this fact too; bets were it didn’t.
Positioning himself around the structure’s concrete corner, Garret made the Ranger lean outwards just slightly enough to bring half of his arsenal to bear. His right-most Light Gauss Rifle poked out of cover just enough to hug the rubble whereas the Ranger’s right arm, wielding a Pulse Laser and a small compact Autocannon aimed in on the corner. Sure enough, the Avenger stepped into view but only to be met with Garret’s own ambush. The accelerated cannon discharged a round, cleanly knocking out the Avenger’s left knee servo joint while the combined barrage of energy pulses and ballistic slugs crippled the Mech’s laser arsenal. The Avenger collapsed to one knee in response to the damage but even with the bulky Mech now disabled, the exercise still identified it as a functional combatant.
Taking advantage of the moment, Garret fired all eight of the Ranger’s jump jets, quickly catapulting the Mech into the air. His strategy was simple; position himself behind the Avenger and finish it off with a combined salvo of rockets and accelerated slugs while trapped within the narrow corridor of buildings. But just before he landed behind the Avenger’s rear, Garret became dumbfounded upon the realization that the Avenger was actually pivoting its torso to face him despite the rubble locking the arm into place...No that was not it; in fact, he could see the Avenger’s right arm literally phasing through the debris as if the obstacle’s coding wasn’t even acknowledging the Mech’s chassis!
With the Ranger now dead in the Avenger’s crosshairs, the AI opened up with its 460mm Autocannon. Garret desperately fired his jumps jets to the left, pushing the Ranger out of the way once he knew the Avenger had him trained in. The Ranger’s chassis rocked violently as the enemy Mech blew off its left arm, expressing the moment through Garret’s suit with a stinging shock of electricity. Angered by this technical outrage, Garret returned fire with his planned arsenal of SRM4s and Light Gauss Rifles, blowing away the Avenger’s upper torso with shrapnel exploding in all directions. The barrage continued for a mere few seconds before the simulation confirmed the Avenger’s “pilot” had been killed, quickly ending the exercise as the result of all hostiles being destroyed.
Garret collapsed back into the actual cockpit of his AJE/M-88 Ranger, giving a deep sigh in regards to the stressful and annoying ordeal that had occurred as his scores were tallied. Just as soon as the training program showed him his results from the exercise, Garret’s face contorted into a bright red and rage filled expression when the program graded him with a “C”. What was perhaps more aggravatingly insulting was the program's naïve gull of telling him to not blatantly jump out of cover in front of a fully armed opponent.
“You have got to be fu-“
The maintenance crews and personnel within the hanger that stowed all the Mechs for active duty and repairs suddenly turned to the AJE/M-88 Ranger’s open cockpit once they heard its pilot screaming in anger and flinched upon the virtual training helmet that was quickly chucked out of the Mech meeting the hard ground with a loud crack.
---
A few hours had gone by and Garret had since cooled off after submitting his results to AJE with an angry footnote as well. As he ate his breakfast within the flagship’s rather decorative mess hall, Garret’s PDA suddenly went off, beeping for his attention. As he pulled it from his pocket, he bet it was message from the floor manager for the Mech hanger, asking him not to make a scene again like earlier. What he got instead was much more interesting and puzzling at the same time; a reassignment order.
Garret stared at the small screen for a minute, confused as to why he was being reassigned. What is because of bad behavior? Would have made sense. Low unit count for a particular squadron? Rather unlikely considering all the squadrons to his knowledge should have been properly organized with the right number of Mechs but then again he had been wrong before. His skills needed for some high risk mission? Very unlikely. He saw himself as a good soldier; heck, he was Special Forces of course but he was not that good of Mech pilot; a test pilot no less. Whatever the case may have been the details were vague as always and all he knew was to follow orders. Garret quickly downed his coffee and left for Briefing Room 2.
---
Upon arriving at the appointed meet room, Garret stepped in with the slide door closing securely behind him. He looked up to see the holographic displays showing an unrecognized star system and several different Mechs highlighted on his screen. There were four in total but a fifth Mech; his mech, began flashing onto the display before solidifying soon afterwards with the rest of the units. He assumed that meant he was now a part of this squadron. While there were perhaps a few confused faces to this new development, Garret figured he had no place to question it verbally since he didn’t know what was going on as well, especially being in presence of a commanding officer. Like the rest of his squadmates, he took his seat and relaxed back, lifting the flask from his chest pocket as he timed how long until the briefing would begin.
A stream of lasers lit up the darkened virtual world, barely missing Garret’s Ranger. Evaluating the source of the attack, he pushed his Mech into a dive for one on the downed buildings. The simulated Ranger acknowledged his thought patterns and manual control instructions and swiftly leapt forward into cover, pressing against the fallen structure per its pilot’s instinctive desire. The enemy that had engaged him was a poorly AI-maned Avenger and was the last remaining target of this exercise program.
Garret swore that while the Mechs in the simulation operated as they should in reality, the training AIs, more like simple programmed drones with a dull sense of logic, put up a rather uninteresting and predictable fight. If anything, this was more like target practice whereas the targets would try to kill you but end up missing most of the time. Garret deduced the Avenger was roughly fifty meters away from the point of contact; just enough distance to accurately score at least a hit on him. The Allied Jupiter Engineering programmer who organized this world and its mechanics must not have been paid too well.
The Ranger’s sensors picked up the Avenger advancing on his position; the tall Mech was no doubtedly looking to obtain a proper line of sight before engaging Garret once more. While his opponent was much more massive than his own Mech, if not by a whole two meters, it was however slower and somewhat clumsier given the narrow road it show to advance down on. This advantage would be deadly against the Avenger to exploit just as long as the AI was not aware of this fact too; bets were it didn’t.
Positioning himself around the structure’s concrete corner, Garret made the Ranger lean outwards just slightly enough to bring half of his arsenal to bear. His right-most Light Gauss Rifle poked out of cover just enough to hug the rubble whereas the Ranger’s right arm, wielding a Pulse Laser and a small compact Autocannon aimed in on the corner. Sure enough, the Avenger stepped into view but only to be met with Garret’s own ambush. The accelerated cannon discharged a round, cleanly knocking out the Avenger’s left knee servo joint while the combined barrage of energy pulses and ballistic slugs crippled the Mech’s laser arsenal. The Avenger collapsed to one knee in response to the damage but even with the bulky Mech now disabled, the exercise still identified it as a functional combatant.
Taking advantage of the moment, Garret fired all eight of the Ranger’s jump jets, quickly catapulting the Mech into the air. His strategy was simple; position himself behind the Avenger and finish it off with a combined salvo of rockets and accelerated slugs while trapped within the narrow corridor of buildings. But just before he landed behind the Avenger’s rear, Garret became dumbfounded upon the realization that the Avenger was actually pivoting its torso to face him despite the rubble locking the arm into place...No that was not it; in fact, he could see the Avenger’s right arm literally phasing through the debris as if the obstacle’s coding wasn’t even acknowledging the Mech’s chassis!
With the Ranger now dead in the Avenger’s crosshairs, the AI opened up with its 460mm Autocannon. Garret desperately fired his jumps jets to the left, pushing the Ranger out of the way once he knew the Avenger had him trained in. The Ranger’s chassis rocked violently as the enemy Mech blew off its left arm, expressing the moment through Garret’s suit with a stinging shock of electricity. Angered by this technical outrage, Garret returned fire with his planned arsenal of SRM4s and Light Gauss Rifles, blowing away the Avenger’s upper torso with shrapnel exploding in all directions. The barrage continued for a mere few seconds before the simulation confirmed the Avenger’s “pilot” had been killed, quickly ending the exercise as the result of all hostiles being destroyed.
Garret collapsed back into the actual cockpit of his AJE/M-88 Ranger, giving a deep sigh in regards to the stressful and annoying ordeal that had occurred as his scores were tallied. Just as soon as the training program showed him his results from the exercise, Garret’s face contorted into a bright red and rage filled expression when the program graded him with a “C”. What was perhaps more aggravatingly insulting was the program's naïve gull of telling him to not blatantly jump out of cover in front of a fully armed opponent.
“You have got to be fu-“
The maintenance crews and personnel within the hanger that stowed all the Mechs for active duty and repairs suddenly turned to the AJE/M-88 Ranger’s open cockpit once they heard its pilot screaming in anger and flinched upon the virtual training helmet that was quickly chucked out of the Mech meeting the hard ground with a loud crack.
---
A few hours had gone by and Garret had since cooled off after submitting his results to AJE with an angry footnote as well. As he ate his breakfast within the flagship’s rather decorative mess hall, Garret’s PDA suddenly went off, beeping for his attention. As he pulled it from his pocket, he bet it was message from the floor manager for the Mech hanger, asking him not to make a scene again like earlier. What he got instead was much more interesting and puzzling at the same time; a reassignment order.
Garret stared at the small screen for a minute, confused as to why he was being reassigned. What is because of bad behavior? Would have made sense. Low unit count for a particular squadron? Rather unlikely considering all the squadrons to his knowledge should have been properly organized with the right number of Mechs but then again he had been wrong before. His skills needed for some high risk mission? Very unlikely. He saw himself as a good soldier; heck, he was Special Forces of course but he was not that good of Mech pilot; a test pilot no less. Whatever the case may have been the details were vague as always and all he knew was to follow orders. Garret quickly downed his coffee and left for Briefing Room 2.
---
Upon arriving at the appointed meet room, Garret stepped in with the slide door closing securely behind him. He looked up to see the holographic displays showing an unrecognized star system and several different Mechs highlighted on his screen. There were four in total but a fifth Mech; his mech, began flashing onto the display before solidifying soon afterwards with the rest of the units. He assumed that meant he was now a part of this squadron. While there were perhaps a few confused faces to this new development, Garret figured he had no place to question it verbally since he didn’t know what was going on as well, especially being in presence of a commanding officer. Like the rest of his squadmates, he took his seat and relaxed back, lifting the flask from his chest pocket as he timed how long until the briefing would begin.
