Over the next few days, I got more proficient at controlling the mech. It was slow at first, but I got into the swing of it. The hardest part was the initial connection, but it smothed out over time.
A few people though, they couldn't take it. One of em was a scorpion driver, and he said that while similar, it was also very different. He said that he just felt off in it.
But, that's besides the point. She climbed up and in, as usual, and started it up. It stood up, arms coming up to cockpit level. She started moving backwards, spinning to look right. The moved forward, then looked right.
Her usual routine done, she spun around and began moving at full speed. The others around her were doing similar things, and eventually following her. She started slowing as she arived at her destination. The firing range.
There were multiple different ways to use the firing range, but she chose her usual. The 'Live Fire Exercise', despite its name, was simply like a mixture of king of the hill, wave survival, and a last stand.
2 others joined me in my simulation, and suddenly we were in a city. In terms of map, there were 3. One was a desert with sparse dunes, one was a forest, one was an urban city. Each had different enemy concentrations, fitting each map.
The city, she found, tended towards sudden assaults of light vehicles, without few heavy vehicles and infantry to support. She hasn't completed one before, but she felt good about her odds this time.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
"Ready lady's and gents?" She called over coms.
"Afirm LT. Standard pattern?"
"Yep, get in position now. You know engagement protocol."
A chuckle came through from both others, and she joined in. The protocol, was simply call it and kill it. She moved into position, making sure she could cover as many angles as possible, and sat back to wait.
She watched her sensors while scanning visually. Her motion sensor pinged, and she panned the cockpit to that direction. The movement continued, and she called it in.
She got a good view of shield jackles jumping from cover to cover, so she started up her 40mm. The thing had two modes, fast or slow. Slow was around 360rpm, made for ammo conservation. She popped a burst, and explosions boomed on and amidst the small group of jackles. They were flung everywhere, and she saw that they didn't get back up.
She nodded, called "All clear.", and went back to watching. She had sensors for just about everything, including interlocked infrared and night vision. That would help with killing invisible enemies, as it turns out that they pump out shit tones of heat.
The pattern repeated. Someone calling "Contact.", a bit of gunfire from either a chain gun or 40, then the all clear. The first vehicle came down one of her teammates sections, and the ghost was subsequently chewed apart by her 20mm.
That started the occasional vehicle/vehicles rushing them, sometimes with infantry. Sometimes it was choppers, sometimes ghosts. The occasional heavier vehicle came, carrying mounted infantry.
The first challenge came when a pink ball of plasma came rocketing down her section, and she quickly moved back. She locked the target as it came fully around a bend, and fired a missile. It streaked down range, hitting the Revenant and flipping it end over end.
"Heavier vehicles have started." She called. The others acknowledged, and the party started. Proper enemy AT started appearing, sometimes fuel rod guns, sometimes heavy plasma guns. The occasional revenant with its mortar came to try their luck, but they were priority targets and were always the first to go.
At one point, a surprise hit from an invisible split jaws with a fuel rod caused her to jump. She quickly targeted where the shot came from and blew it away with her 40. "Invisibles!" She called over coms.
The fuel rod had hit, but her frontal shields held at 70%. She focused shields more frontward and sat back to wait. For what? Well, whatever dared show its head.
