Kapitel 21: FLY ME TO THE MOON
Ariel stepped forward in the cockpit, moving the Mecha forward in space. If one were to observe her in the cockpit, she appears to be moving forward normally, albeit more heavily thanks to the equipment tied to her drive suit.
But if one were to observe her T-01 Mecha from the outside, her Mecha looks like a puppet being controlled by a person with both of arms fractured, as it swayed about in space like a piece of leaf on a windy autumn night. While all of the cadets had piloted drone Mechas before and are familiar with the basic controls during their time in the Tier 2 units, actually piloting manned Mechas is a very different experience for them, struggling not to collide into each other.
Well, with the exception of Sean and Clara. Sean is slowly yet surely recovering his latent skills, like re-learning how to ride a bicycle. The same applies for Clara, after all, she was on the track to be a dedicated Mecha pilot when she enrolled 6 years ago, changing to Special Forces later in her career. She is already qualified to use the MS-9853.
Fortunately for the cadets, the AI on T-01 units has an added "coach" function, which automatically locks the Mecha down and take over with autopilot if it calculates that the chances of an accident go beyond a certain threshold, or if activated by the cadets.
That does not mean that the instructors are going to go any easier on them as they flew in formation. Quite the opposite, the instructors are yelling at them with the vilest vocabulary and fiercest tones they can think of.
Xiao Tian acted as flight leader, leading the formation in Crimson Dragon, while other cadets and instructors flew behind him in smaller formations.
"Follow my instructions and that of your screens!" ordered Xiao Tian.
Sean, Karl and Louis flew right behind Xiao Tian. The 3 are flanked by Franz.
Louis started to stray away.
"Number 92!" roared Franz. "Crimson Dragon just said goodbye."
Louis struggled, trying to get his Mecha back to formation.
"Look at number 23 and number 9 sticking to Crimson Dragon like superglue!" roared Franz. "Then look at you number 92! HOW THE F*** DID YOU STRAY SO FAR OFF?! YOU MIGHT AS WELL FLY TO THE SUN!"
"Sorry Sir, number 92 pursuing!" replied Louis.
"YOU GOT IT WRONG MORON!" snapped Franz. "YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE LET CRIMSON DRAGON FLY OFF IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Louis adjusted, shifting it back into position.
Little did Franz know that his blood pressure is about to see an even higher spike.
Vera lost control of her acceleration, charging straight at Nanami who led her.
"FLAT! FLAT! FLAT!" roared Herbert at Vera on the comms, seeing her distance to Nanami on his holographic screen. He is flying behind her.
"CUT THE ACCELERATOR!!' yelled Herbert. "YOU ARE GOING TO COLLIDE!!"
"CUT!!!!"
Warnings beeped in Nanami's cockpit, she immediately took evasive action, ensuring that she does not collide into other Mechas.
At the last moment Vera regained control of her Mecha, just before hitting the threshold for AI autopilot takeover.
"Number 17 is your Mecha performing normally?" asked Nanami.
"Yes Ma'am!" replied Vera.
"Number 17!" roared Franz through the radio. "I think we f***ing owe you a favour."
"Real kind of you to give us a lung capacity exercise up here 384,400km away from Earth by making us scream at you for your pathetic actions!" yelled Franz sarcastically.
"We are going to turn in formation," instructed Xiao Tian, turning left.
"TURN IN FORMATION! DID YOU NOT CATCH THAT NUMBER 42?" roared Reza.
"Yes Sir!" replied Albert, flying beside Vera.
He adjusted the controls as much as he could.
"DID XIAO TIAN GIVE HIS ORDERS IN ENGLISH OR BETHORIAN?" roared Franz.
"English, Sir!" replied Albert.
"THEN WHY ARE YOU DUMBA** STILL FLYING SO F***ING HIGH?" asked Franz. "DO YOU NEED HIM TO GIVE ORDERS IN CHINESE?!"
"NO SIR!" replied Albert, lowering his flight path, and ensuring he is flying below Vera's T-01 unit as per instructed by the AI on his touch screen.
"You are going to collide, cut!" roared Reza.
Albert immediately cut his accelerator, narrowly avoiding a collision.
"WHAT ARE YOU, A PERVERT?' roared Franz. "WHY ARE YOU FLYING SO CLOSE TO NUMBER 17?! KEEP YOUR DISTANCE!"
Sean could not help but to laugh in exasperation at the antics of his friends. He stuck tightly onto Xiao Tian, following him closely.
Karl gritted his teeth at Sean, unhappy that he is performing at his level. His pride does not allow someone he perceives as inferior to be seen as his equal.
At another side, Herbert and Franz are drilling the hell out of Erika and Eddie.
"MOTHERF***ERS MAINTAIN YOUR SPEED!" roared Franz.
"CHECK YOUR ALTITUDE!" yelled Herbert.
"DO YOU HAVE NO ACCELERATOR TO CUT?" roared Franz and Erika, his face red up to his cat ears from shouting for so long.
"Can," replied Erika. She is really freaked out now actually flying in space. Flying drones is a real different experience from piloting manually.
"F***ING DO IT!"
Erika did as he ordered, returning to a correct position.
"THEN WHAT WERE YOU DOING PREVIOUSLY? F***ING RET*RD!" cursed Franz.
Erika is already on the verge of tears and freaking out as the stress got to her.
"Hard?" asked Franz.
"No Sir," replied Erika, trying her best to sound normal and not let the King of Bast*rds figure out that she is on the verge of tears, as she knew that she will get another salvo of insults and scolding from him if he sensed it.
"Number 4, if you cannot do it, I would have accepted it as it is," said Herbert. "But you were evidently able to do it but yet still didn't!"
Eddie slowed down, trying his best to remain in formation. Hearing the rapid fire of insults made him extremely cautious, and apprehensive.
"Don't want to end up like Erika…"
"Number 74 do you have a malfunction?!" screamed Herbert.
"No!" Eddie replied.
"Do you need an AI takeover?!"
"No!"
"Then speed the f*** up! You are going to be thrown off the formation!" yelled Herbert.
"Landing procedures begin," instructed Xiao Tian, and a new set of instructions appeared on the cadet's screens. "Careful to keep your speeds, otherwise you are flying yourselves into the Moon!"
Clara readied the landing procedures, a piece of cake as her latent skills and experience came back.
Xiao Tian looked at the cadets flying after him, readying their landing procedures. Clara is already pre-empting herself for the next steps.
"Number 100," he remarked. "A bit too enthusiastic?"
"No such thing, sir!" she replied.
"It's good to be enthusiastic and confident," said Xiao Tian. "You don't seem to know when to quit?"he joked.
"NEVER QUITTING!" she replied. "Sir, are you mocking me?"
She flew forward sharply, narrowly hitting Sean in her brazen act, ignoring it.
"Stay in formation!" chided Nanami. Clara complied, slowing down.
Ariel moved up, turning together with Clara, her hidden talent for Mecha performance is already evident, quickly moving on and overcoming her previous clumsiness.
Xiao Tian landed into the base, as his Mecha came to a halt, he made a quick assessment of the top 3 cadets of the batch internally, his personality analysis of them on the first day of meeting is extremely accurate.
"First, we have number 23, the best of his Tier 2 unit, his recommendation letter to the Tier 1 has 3 pages of just praises for him by his superiors, his skills do match such a high regard, but he is vain and self-important, and fundamentally elitist to the core."
"Number 100 comes in close to 23, her positive traits include her strong willpower which is near unbreakable, but she lacks awareness of others."
"Number 31 is a bundle of joy and a hidden gold mine, no one had expected her to perform so well, I wonder what other surprises she has in store?"
Nonetheless, they paled in comparison to the cadet he is truly most interested in, darting his attention to Sean's T-01 Mecha that came to a stop beside.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein