Chapter 28: Simulation: Part 5
*Third Person POV*
After resting for a bit, Aspen and Ghost helped patch each other up using the med kit Aspen had found days earlier. After doing so, Aspen ordered BT to run a diagnostic and do a damage report.
"Affirmative, Pilot. Running diagnostics now... Diagnostics ran. Damage report:
Integrity: 28%
Shields: System damage detected, shields offline
Heavily damaged left leg, damage exacerbated from running to your aid; Moderately damaged right leg; Right knee joint badly damaged, barely holding in place; Damaged Reactor: Stable; Damaged Optics and scanners, functional but far from optimal; Multiple systems malfunctioning and offline; Semi functional left arm; Right arm moderately damaged; Right shoulder damaged; Immediate Cockpit armor replacement required;
End of damage report."
*Whistle*
Ghost whistled as he heard BT call out all of the damage it currently had. "So, what's the story?"
Aspen sighed as he clasped his hands together and looked down. "Well, I ambushed a patrol of 8 Tier 1 Knights, 3 Tier 1 Parallaxs, and 1 Tier 1 Rakshasa. I took out 2 Parallax and 5 Knights. Heavily damaged the last Parallax as it retreated with the remaining 3 Knights. I then took down the Rakshasa which had taken damage to its optics at the beginning of the fight…"
Aspen's words trailed off as he brought up the Rakshasa he had destroyed. Ghost noticed that something was off about it. "What's wrong? What happened there?"
Aspen looked up to Ghost, his eyes starting to water a bit. "You know, the human mind is a bitch to deal with. I know that this is a simulation….but man, the pilot of the Rakshasa… she was… she was just a fucking kid man. And she… she tried to kill me after I rescued her and my body just- my body just moved on its own, and I shot her. I tried to help her, but- but I had shot her in the heart."
Aspen sighed as he wiped his eyes. "Fucking simulation man, I know it's not real, but I- I fucking killed a kid man. Nothing can prepare you to watch a kid's life slip in your arms, to watch the shimmer in their eyes vanish… and to know that you caused it. Fuck me, man. I've killed so many people by now, in the real world, but this one- this one was not something I was ready for."
Ghost grunted as he stood up and put his hand on Aspen's shoulder. "Simulation or not, no one wants to kill a kid, not unless you're a psychopath… or the kid truly deserves it." He then patted Aspen's back before moving away from him. "I've done shit that ain't pretty, as a man… and as a kid. Though this was a simulation… you won't forget what you did. You just have to learn to live with it. To forgive yourself, or to make that excuse to accept yourself."
"She tried to kill you, so you killed her, that's as far as it goes. Kid or not, war doesn't care about it. Those that take up a rifle or pilot a mech against you are nothing more than your enemy. Think of it that way… it's the only way to think of it."
Aspen nodded at the piece of advice, "Guess you do have a point there. It's just, you know, not easy to deal with. Not for me, at least. I wasn't a soldier before. This world's memories allowed me to kill as if it was natural, but not to that level."
Ghost grunted as he sat back down. "Yeah, well, that's something you'll have to deal with. I ain't no therapist. But all of this doesn't explain how your mech ended up… like that," Ghost said as he wagged his finger at BT's frame.
Aspen attempted a smile as he nodded. "Yeah, it doesn't. That came from the next day, I was tracked by the girl's grandfather… he was piloting a Tier 2 Parallax."
At the mention of a Tier 2 Parallax, Ghost raised his eyebrows. "And how the fuck are you still alive?" He then looked over at BT's frame and noticed a Sniper rifle that was slightly larger than his own. "Don't tell me you..."
"Yup," Aspen nodded. "It ambushed me, its first shot caught me off guard but my shields managed to block it, though they were exhausted after taking such a hit. I then was able to dodge and make his shots ricochet from my armor, changed up tactics from running to pushing towards him, which probably caught him a bit off guard. Got up close, he honored a duel, we went at it with weapons, I played dirty, he crippled my left arm, we fought some more, yadi yada, I managed to get the upper hand, ripped his right arm off, and finished him off with his own sniper."
Ghost's mouth was slightly agape. "You ripped off a Tier 2 Parallax's arm with a Tier 1 Parallax?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, it was do or die at that point… oh fuck." Aspen trailed off as he started thinking, his mind running on overtime as he turned towards the organized parts for Tier 2 Parallax Mechs in the room, realizing that higher tier mechs were made with stronger materials, better wiring, stronger joints. It wasn't just made bigger for the sake of electronics and although the Parallax's armor was amongst the worst off all mechs, it wasn't just something that could be ripped apart as he had done to it, at least not a whole section.
As realization filled Aspen's eyes that he had just done something that would be considered impossible, Ghost nodded. "Yeah, but don't get too full of yourself, it was probably only due to the fact that this is a simulation."
The shock left Aspen's eyes as he looked over to Ghost, "Yeah, but maybe sync rate also played a role in it. Since the higher the Sync rate the more things you can pull off." He then turned to BT as he asked, "Hey BT, what was our sync rate at the moment of that fight?"
"Pilot, at the moment of that fight our Sync rate had reached 143%. It is currently at 173%." BT responded through its external speakers.
Ghost stood right up as he heard this. "Holy fuck! How do you have such an impossible sync rate so fucking quick? Sync rate is something that is meant to rise witht eh time you spend connected to your mech and its supposed to rise parallel to your pilot level until you reach the limit of your potential. I already have an impossible sync rate of 75% as a Epsilon level pilot with this neural link you had installed in me. Just what the fuck do you have in your body?"
Aspen chuckled as he ran his hand over his neck, contemplating whether or not he should share this information with Ghost as he felt the slight bump of his neural link. "Fuck it, I trust you anyways. My neural link is something that was rewarded to me by God. It is called the Godlink. It allows up to 200% sync rate and gives its user a chance at reaching the Abyssal Pilot level."
Ghost frowned at this. "Abyssal pilot level?"
Aspen smiled, "It's a level that's not within this universe's ranking system as it hasn't been reached by anyone before. It would be what comes next after the Omega Pilot level. Don't be surprised by this yet, there are still many things I've yet to unlock, receive, or buy."
Ghost simply nodded with an absent-minded look in his eyes. "When we exit this simulation, I want you to lend me that book you showed me."
Aspen's smile broadened even more as he made eye contact with Ghost, "Yeah sure, just gotta wait a few weeks until the sim is done. We're on what, our 2nd week?" Aspen said as he stood up and walked to his Mech with his helmet in hand. "I'm going to get some rest. I'll get to fixing BT up tomorrow when there's sunlight. Don't want to attract any unwanted attention in the night."
Ghost watched Aspen climb into his mech before grunting as he picked up his helmet from the floor and limped to his mech.
---
The first break of light came accompanied by a knock on the cockpit from BT. Inside, Aspen slowly stirred awake, stretching his arms and legs as much as he could.
"Morning BT," Aspen said as he rubbed his eyes.
"Good morning, Pilot, it is 6:23 am. The sun has risen, and it is time for you to, and I quote, 'make me better than I ever was.'"
Aspen chuckled in the cockpit as he opened the hatch and climbed out. Once he was on the ground, he stretched once again, moving with his helmet attached to his hip toward the Tier 2 Parallax section and sorting through parts. In the middle of doing so, he heard the sound of air being released coming from a mech's hatch opening. It was then followed by the sound of footsteps behind him, which he greeted with a simple, "Morning."
Ghost, who was still a little weary and hurting from yesterday's fight responded while yawning. "Morning to you too. I got tons of extra food in my storage, have this MRE," he handed Aspen an MRE which Aspen promptly opened and started eating.
"So, what are you planning to do? These are Tier 2 parts," Ghost pointed to all of the parts neatly arranged in the room while chewing his food, "I'm pretty sure that you should have the memories of why tier 2 parts, except for their weaponry, aren't meant to be connected to Tier 1 mechs."
"I'm trying to figure some things out. I'm thinking of possibly doing an overhaul of BT's design. Change the cockpit and how you board it by doing away with the hatch, make changes to the frame, possibly make a whole new mech and just transfer BT's program over to it. I'm trying to make something that can take a hit and keep pushing like it was nothing, maybe use some parts from the Knights and the Rakshasa sections, create my own Frankenstein, though that was the doctor's name," Aspen said as he used a tablet that was about 14x17 inches to start drawing up something new.
"Mhmm, then what exactly are you thinking of making? A Rakshasa variant?" Ghost asked as he looked over Aspen's shoulder at the tablet to see what he was drawing up.
Aspen didn't respond and just kept on working, taking glances at the parts and making mental calculations, adjusting things here and there in the design, before moving to the Rakshasa section and then to the knight section as Ghost sat down and finished his MRE.
Ghost then started walking toward his mech. "Alright, keep your secrets, I'll go for a walk, stretch my legs, scout the area, make sure no one is closing in on us, maybe take care of them if they are."
"You do that, I'll have something done by the time you get back here. At the very least design-wise." Aspen responded without looking up from the tablet and continuing to work as Ghost mounted his mech and left the warehouse.
As Aspen worked, his memories of mechs from Earth kept on popping into his mind. But out of all of them, the one that really stuck the most was the one mech he had been obsessed with. Gundam Frame Barbatos Lupus Rex.
Of course, it wasn't like he could outright make Lupus Rex with the available materials, tools, and time. But he could only make a half-assed attempt at something similar to it, yet vastly different at the same time. Lupus Rex stood proudly at 19 meters tall while the tallest mech in this universe was 14 meters tall.
If he wanted to make Lupus Rex, even in a simulation, he would have to fabricate every single part from scratch, and even then, what were the odds that it would be anything like the actual Lupus Rex. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't try.
Over the course of the next 6 hours, while Ghost was patrolling, Aspen managed to design a mech that slightly resembled Lupus Rex. It would stand at a height that was just between a Tier 3 and Tier 4 Parallax, standing at 8.5 meters tall. It would also boast 2 Rakshasa reactors, and would be outfitted with a tier 2 sniper rifle as its main weapon, a Rakshasa rifle as its secondary main weapon, and an upgraded spear made of tier 2 materials.
"Hmm, it don't look half bad," Aspen said as he looked over his design. The cockpit, which would be made out of parts used for a Rakshasa cockpit, resembled Lupus Rex's cockpit. The head was also made Rakshasa parts, but made more angular and with more protection to the optics. The shoulders broke away from the square boxes of this world's mechs and bore the resemblance of Lupus Rex, being made of heaxagons that would be angled to make the coulders more rounded, a better way to armor it making it more likely for shots to ricochet.
The legs, which would be composed of Tier 2 Knight leg parts which would allow for a heavier load but maintain some speed, slightly resembled the legs of Lupus Rex, except for the fact that the feet bore a slight difference. Instead of the 2 claws in front and one hoof in the back shape that Lupus Rex had, Aspen had split the back hoof and put them at a 33-degree angle left and right from the claws, giving the mech more stability, better weight distribution, and allowing it to reach higher running speeds.
"Eh, I'll do better if I make this in the real world. I just had to take account of the parts available to make this," Aspen murmured to himself as he finished inspecting his sketches. "Time to go from drawing to reality."
Aspen stood up and started going over the parts in the warehouse. He started picking out what he needed and used a platform truck to move them around. It took about 2 more hours to move everything somewhere with enough space to start modifying and later assembling. By the time he was done, Aspen was almost out of it, tired and hungry. Ghost had returned about 2 minutes before Aspen finished moving everything and it was now 2 PM.
"So, what are you making?" Asked Ghost as he dismounted his mech and tossed Aspen an MRE. Aspen didn't have the energy to catch it and just let it smack into his body and drop to the ground before he slowly bent over to pick it up.
"Check the tablet on that table," Aspen responded as he opened the MRE and dug in.
Ghost analyzed the sketches Aspen had made, all the details in it, and all the changes he would have to make to existing parts from various different mech. "You know, you won't be able to pilot this unless you are a Delta Level pilot. The parts, weight, size… electronics, the mech itself, it's just too much of a load for your current brain to bear when you pair with it. If this wasn't a simulation and you tried pairing with something like this in real life, you'd cook your brain from the feedback."
Aspen looked up tiredly from his meal, his mouth half full as he asked "Aren't piloting levels just awarded to you based on how many hours you have piloting a mech in addition to potential and what's it called… sync rates?"
Ghost couldn't help but facepalm at this. "If it was solely because of the piloting experience, just about anyone could pilot a mech. Sometimes I wonder if you're a genius or an idiot with the shit you do and ask. Piloting levels are a simple concept to explain: The longer you have piloting a mech, or in a simulation where you are piloting a mech, then the more your Neural pathways are developed. Piloting levels tend to signify not just how capable of a pilot someone is, that's what potential is for. They also show how much your brain has developed to bear a load from connecting to such a machine and being able to control it."
Aspen nodded in understanding, "So then, what about pilots? Can every single one of them reach a certain level, even if their potential caps below that?"
Ghost shrugged at the question. "Theoretically, I guess they can push themselves just over and reach a higher pilot level than their potential since potentials are only an estimate. Though I have yet to hear of any human breaking past their pilot-level potential."
Aspen nodded as he finished his MRE. "Interesting."
After about an hour of rest, Aspen felt rejuvenated again and grabbed his tools along with some others that he had found while scavenging the previous day. After getting his tools, Aspen went to work changing the shapes of certain parts to fit that of his design. Over the course of the next 5 hours, Aspen worked tirelessly, managing to only modify and assemble the legs before the sun came down.
He grabbed some wipes and went to a corner to "bathe" himself, or at least keep himself from stinking like crazy. Being a pilot in a war zone came with the nasty perks of having to endure extended periods of times without a proper shower.
He then climbed into BT and went to sleep, the fatigue accumulated from the day of work taking over him.
---
Just like clockwork, the next morning came just like the previous, however, it was a rainy day unlike the previous. BT woke Aspen up as the sound of rain filled the atmosphere. Aspen repeated his wake up routine and climbed out of BT, who maintained its power output at the lowest at all times, and walked over to the parts with his own MRE in hand. He quickly ate it as he glanced over at Ghost's mech, which was also in a low-power output mode.
Once he was done eating, he went straight into modifying and assembling the arms, working tirelessly until about 11am, when he had finished with the arms. He moved on to make the modify and assemble the head, quickly finishing that in just under 2 hours.
He took a small break and ate another one of his MREs before getting back to it. He went into modifying and assembling the cockpit, something that took the longest by far. About halfway through assembling the cockpit, Ghost woke up and joined Aspen.
"You've made quite some impressive progress," Ghost said as Aspen was still working on the cockpit.
"I still need to modify and make the chest and abdominal area." Aspen responded without breaking away from his work. "And once I'm done with all that, I have to put it all together, for which I'll require your assistance. Once assembly is done, then comes coding. Since this is a mix of mechs, I need to make sure power distribution works right, that the parts work in conjuction with each other, that I need to make sure everything is a-o-k. Mech isn't finished untill all of that is finished."
Ghost let out a tired yawn. "Man, if only factories worked as fast as you."
This caused Aspen to pause from his work and raise an eyebrow as he asked, "What? Do mechs usually take ages to be assembled?"
"No, not really, they just take a while with coding, safety tests and all that shit," Ghost replied.
"Oh yeah, all the non-important things that you definitely don't need if you want a mech that functions correctly..." Aspen replied in a sarcastic tone.
"Exactly," replied Ghost. "Alright, I'll go scout again, you think you'll be done by tonight?"
Aspen nodded as he went back to work. "Yeah, I'll do the assembly and coding tomorrow though."
And with that, Ghost departed with his mech to scout the area and ensure no patrols get too close.
For the next 7 hours, until the sun finally started to set, Aspen worked tirelessly, finishing the modification and assembly of the remaining parts. Ghost had already returned form his patrol and he had coem with some news.
"Patrols are getting closer to our location," Ghost said as he and Aspen ate their dinner MREs. "Spotted one that should be making their way toward us by about tomorrow afternoon if they maitain their current pace."
Aspen chewed on his meal as he wiped the sweat off his brows. "I'm pretty sure I can get eveyrthing done and ready to go before noon."
Ghost nodded. "Alright, just remeber, you'll probably wake up in the simulator pod because you're definitely going to die tomorrow."
"I already died once, twice if you consider the death in this universe, what difference would a third one make?" Aspen said with a chuckle.
"Fair enough," Ghost said.
With that, they both parted ways and went to sleep in their mechs.
---
The next morning Aspen woke up before BT could have a chance to knock on the cockpit.
"Morning, Pilot. You awoke early, it is currently 5:20 am."
"Well BT, today's the day you get your makeover," Aspen responded. He climbed out of his cockpit and walked over to Ghost's mech and stood in front of it. Seeing no response from it yet, he grabbed a rock and threw it against the cockpit. The action was enough for the mech to turn on and wake Ghost up. After awaking, Ghost turned his exterior speakers on and asked in a groggy voice "what is it? The sun isn't up yet."
Aspen smiled and raised an eyebrow. "Wakey wakey princess, time to get the assembling ofthe mech going. As you can see, it is still dark, so lights would be much appreciated, though my helmet would work just fine. I also have this need of you to help move things around, and I don't think BT is in the condition to be of much help."
Ghost sighed inside his cockpit as he replied, "sure..."
With that, Ghost piloted his mech over to all the assembled limbs and parts. "So what do you want me to do?"
Aspen instructed Ghost on what to do, putting his mech's rifle aside and bending down to move parts where Aspen wanted them. After he would do so, Aspen would go and tighten them together, connecting wires from limb to the cockpit in the process. They repeated this with every single part and limb until the mech was fully assembled.
The connection process was rather quick, only taking up an hour with the time now being 6:30. The mech lay on the ground motionless as it was only missing one thing to activate and control all of its systems... an AI, even if it was a damaged one.
Aspen walked over to BT who was in its low-power mode and climbed into the cockpit and fully powered down the mech, turning its reactor completely off. He then disassembled parts of the interior and disconnected BT's unit that contained its AI self. He climbed out of the cockpit with it in hand and made his way to his new mech.
He went to the right side of its cockpit and lifted a small part of the armor and placed his bare right hand against it. This caused the cockpit to split into 2 and part of it go down along with a row of controls and leave the seat open for easy access.
*Whistle*
Aspen heard a whistle coming from Ghost's mech's exterior sound system as carefully climbed into the seat. "Yeah, I think you have a future in the mech design and construction field. Hell, we might not even have to rely on that energy idea and just head straight into military industry. Maybe use that connection with our tennant for it."
"Yeah, no. I'm not giving anyone an edge with my innovations," Aspen said. "But maybe I could make some that just slightly outperform the Reapers at their tiers, make people think a new revolutionary has come while I design mechs for us and whoever will join us in the future that would put them all to shame."
Ghost couldn't help but laugh at Aspen's words. "Hahaha, man you're funny… wait, you're serious?"
Aspen only smiled at Ghost's mech before pressing on a button on the bottom of his seat which caused the cockpit to close. Aspen then put his helmet on and looked under the row of controls and connected BT's AI unit to the mech.
"Here goes nothing," he murmured as he then pressed a button on the bottom of the row of controls. A few quiet seconds went by before the low whir of the reactor coming online could be heard. About a minute went by with the reactor on before the lights in the cockpit turned on.
Another minute went by and the HUD turned on. Aspen then pressed a button on the left side of the bottom of his chair which caused a holographic keyboard to appear above the row of controls. When this happened, Aspen started typing.
He spent 4 hours creating a whole new serires of code, optimizing the mech's use of energy, its distribution, and just how much he could push it to make unbeliaveble moves with such a low tier mech. Once he was done, Aspen craked his fingers and stretched, the redesigned cockpit giving aspen much more space to move around and stay comfortable.
"All this typing has me feeling like Ernie from that one isekai mecha anime. What was it called again? Oh right, Knight's and Magic." Aspen said as he rotated his wrists. "Though I must say, creating new coding is nowhere near as easy as he made it seem. I still struggled with all the knowledge I have and this little fucker did a complete revamp on a mech's coding in fucking seconds."
The mech was now online, but only in an idle way as Aspen had yet to activate BT. So he activated BT which took 2 minutes of waiting for its code to align and connect with the custom code Aspen had just created for thew new mech.
Once that was over, BT's voice filled the cockpit
"Analyzing Data.... Data Analyzed. Synchronizing with mech systems..... Synchronized. Mech information does not appear on Database. Mech believed to be a new prototype. For further analysis, pilot connection required."
"BT, can you run a diagnostic and give me a report?" Aspen asked as he stretched.
"Affirmative. Running Diagnostic....All systems operational.
Mech condition: Optimal
Mech Integrity: 100%"
"Well, that's good to hear. BT, are you able to control the mech and stand it up?" Aspen asked.
"Negative. Pilot connection required for further actions such as movement and operation of the mech."
Aspen sighed. "Alright then, lets connect." He said as he grabbed the thick wire and plugged it into the incision in his back.
"Pilot level detected to be at Epsilon Mid-tier. Pilot level recommended for connection based on current mech information: Delta or above."
Aspen sighed as he heard this and unplugged the wire from his back. "Alright BT, open the cockpit." As soon as he finished talking, the cockpit split open and Aspen climbed out. Ghost was sitting on a chair, enjoying his breakfast MRE in the early morning.
"Its been 4 hours, I though you had already fried your brain. So tell me, what's up?" Ghost asked as he saw Aspen get out of the mech.
Aspen didn't say anything until he sat down next to Ghost. "The fucking AI, it's requiring a Delta level pilot to connect to it."
"Told you so." Was the only thing that came from Ghost's mouth.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm just going to rewrite part of its code to bypass the safety systems. I only came out to rest a bit before going through with it." Aspen replied.
Ghost shook his head at Aspen's voice before saying, "If you want to end your simulation early, then go for it."
For the next hour, Aspen rested. It was now 11:50 am, and he had rested enough, he tasked Ghost with keeping a lookout while in his mech before climbing into his new mech's cockpit. He quickly started rewriting a part of BT's code that prevented lower than recommended level pilots from connecting with a mech. It was there to protect the pilots, but this was all a simulation, so safety wasn't much of a concern for Aspen right now.
Once he was done, he connected the wires to his back again. "Alright BT, commence pilot connection."
"Pilot connection initiated."
As soon as BT finished speaking, a sharp pain shot through Aspen's body and he tried to scream, but no sound would come from his mouth. His vision blurred and he saw lines of code streak through it. The world in front of him shattered like glass, piece by piece as his body convulsed. Blood started dripping from his nose, out his eyes and out his ears.
Outside the mech's cockpit, an electrical field engulfed the mech as Ghost facepalmed. "This stupid motherfucker. Sparrow, search for life signs in that mech, now!"
"Analyzing life signs.... unable to analyze. The Electric field is preventing my scans from working."
Ghost leaned back in his chair as a smile formed and a mutter escaped his lips, "Fucking idiot."
As he closed his eyes, alarms started blaring inside his cockpit as red and orange lights started flashing.
"Pilot, it is imminent that we leave the area. Although my scans cannot pick anything up, energy levels are getting too dangerous to even be around."
"Alright Sparrow," said Ghost, "get us out of here."
Once Ghost was about a kilometer away from the factory, a light blue haze went past him and pushed his mech forward. He turned around only to see the factory crumbling down, as if a sinkhole was pulling it in.
Ghost shook his head as he turned around and continued walking South away from the factory. "I have no idea what the fuck happened, and although that's not what should happen when someone of a lower level connects to a mech with higher pilot level requirements, I did warn him. Maybe the 2 Rakshasa reactors he put in it went off."
Ghost continued moving South, away from the area before the energy readings brought in the unwanted attention of two warring parties.
Word Count: 5123 Words 🤖
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