With the experimental Mecha back in the shuttle, Nico and Max gave it a full inspection and verified that there were no signs of atmospheric leakage from the Pilot's compartment, as well as doing a full mechanical inspection now that it had been in space for the first time and spent a while operating the thrusters.
"Alright. Everything checks out. I will load some ammunition for you, and we can get the live firing exercises going." Nico smirked.
She had a whole obstacle course planned for him to fly through, testing his skills to move through obstacles at speed as well as the targeting functions of the new Mecha.
They were the same as she was using on Shattered Pride, but they were somewhat different than the ones that a Cygnus Pilot would be used to on their own Line or Corvette Class Mecha.
"Now, the course is set for your live fire test. Proceed through it as fast as you can with full accuracy. We need to test both the maneuverability and the firing accuracy. The rounds in the Mass Driver are just metal slugs, and the higher power functions are currently offline. We will test them later, so feel free to treat this as a skills training course." Max informed the Sergeant.
"Understood, Commander."
Khalil pushed off the loading ramp and launched himself toward the beginning of the obstacle course that Nico had designed before he engaged his thrusters. These ones were different than the solid fuel ones he was used to in the Line and Corvette Class Mecha that the Cygnus army had been using, and he didn't want to accidentally damage the ship while he was out here in the middle of nowhere.
They hadn't gotten to test the Warp Drive functions yet, and the fact that they had existed had completely slipped his mind as he settled into the well-trained mindset of a combat Pilot and focused on the abilities that he was used to his Mecha having.
"Forget everything you know about what a Line Mecha should be able to do. Have you ever been in one of the new pattern Fast Attack Crusaders?" Max asked.
"No, but I've seen them in combat against the Scourge, and it's pretty incredible." Sergeant Khalil responded right away, and Max sensed the eagerness in his thoughts.
"Think of this unit more like that. Incredibly mobile with rapid-fire Mass Drivers and the arm-mounted Disruptors as your slower firing area damage option." Max explained.
"Alright. Beginning the course now."
The Mecha spun upward, acquiring the first target and hitting it with a blast from the Disruptor on its right arm. Then a slight turn right and the wing-mounted Mass driver took out the second marked target before the left Disruptor was raised to hit the next.
The Mecha moved smoothly from one target to another, the thrusters working exactly as intended to take it where it was guided, but Nico turned to Max and sighed.
"We should have expected this. He's turning to face every target instead of trusting his targeting sensors, and he's moving at a snail's pace, only targeting one point at a time."
Max chuckled and quickly brought up a simulated class run at the minimum qualifying speed for a Corvette Class operator.
"According to this, he is roughly thirty percent above standard, and the second overlay here is how the Koleska who have trained on the learning machines are doing in their own units," Max explained.
Compared to them, Sergeant Khalil was a speed demon, being nearly forty percent above the minimum qualifying speed for a standard Corvette Class unit and handily outperforming the Koleska regulars.
Nico put a third overlay over the top of Max's simulated data and the Sergeant's live feed. It was the data that she had logged with her as the simulated Pilot, at eighty-five percent of the Mecha's theoretical maximum output values.
Compared to the other two, that one was more of a streak in space, and by the time either of them had reached the fourth target, hers would have finished the whole thirty-target course.
"You really can't expect an unaugmented human to do that. Seriously, they're not physically capable of sustaining that input speed, even with a neural link. By moving some of it to manual controls and out of their conscious thought patterns, they can greatly increase the input speed with enough muscle memory, but compared to your mind or mine, they're nowhere near being a tactical asset." Max reminded her.
"It's just a shame that we can't bring the Androids here. They would love it. Even if I had one Battalion of them, they would mop the floor with most of these Arisen attacks." Nico replied with a sad tone in her thoughts but a very serious voice.
"I know. But, having them suddenly turn on the Koleska because they got possessed would be a nightmare for the whole sector. I doubt that they could fight off a whole Regiment of them during an Arisen attack, and that would be the end of their defence of the Anomaly." Max reminded her before she started making plans to find a way to get some here for testing.
Sergeant Khalil was very proud of himself when he finished the course in the new Line Mecha prototype, unaware of Nico's assessment of his skills.
"Finished. I think I can push this thing harder once I get used to the movement, but it is seriously fast, and the targeting reticule is spot on." The Seargent informed them as he returned to the starting point to prepare for a second run.
"Noted. Also, there is more than one targeting reticule, so if you are capable of tracking more than one enemy at a time, you can multitarget using the different weapons. The wingtip mounted Mass Drivers are somewhat directional, but the arm mounted Disruptors are a bit more flexible in their targeting." Nico informed him.
"Understood, Subcommander. I'm just not used to having so many options yet. How did I do on the maximum Mecha output charts?" Khalil asked.
That was the comparison of how fast they moved compared to what the machine was physically capable of, with seventy percent of the maximum on a Line Mecha being near the standard human reaction limit.
"You are at six point three percent of the unit's maximum speed. Don't feel bad. Nobody expects a Pilot to be able to push this unit to its theoretical limits." Max informed him.
"Single Digits? Alright, no holding back. Second Run Starts now."
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