Chapter 13

"So, I just get in and it'll work the same as my pod?" Griffon was back to being nervous.

"Pretty much. The feeling is a little bit different when you actually make the connection. You may also want to turn down the realistic pain factor."

Loyd shut the door to the pod behind Griffon and walked over to the holo-table in the middle of all the simulators where the battle would be displayed in 3D for the rest to watch.

Griffon swallowed; he was very worried but if his commander believed that he could do it then he knew he would.

"Engaging the neural link with the sim pod now."

He sat back and let the tether attach to his spine. This was always the least comfortable moment for pilots. The simulator didn't' need an implant to sync with you but it was always preferred. The implant let the pilot skip the spine tether sequence.

"Damn, that hurts."

"Believe me, I've got the implant and still need to use the tether, I know what you mean." Loyd watched Griffon's readings on his tablet and waited.

"Well, I'm moving on to the final sync now." Griffon initiated the link and waited for it to hurt, but It never did.

"Well, that was unexpectedly, pleasant." Griffon leaned forward ready for the simulation to start.

"Hey, Deric, are your pilots ready?" Loyd looked at the holo-table seeing that Deric had finished his sync process.

"Sure did, why do I only see you as active though? Your team chicken out at the last second?" Deric laughed.

"No, I'm standing here in front of the holo-table, that's my team you see." Loyd smiled. Deric wouldn't know who it was he had brought to the battlefield now. That was an unforeseen stroke of luck.

"Oh, so you only sent one guy against my ten? It looks like you're about to lose the Twins." Deric had made his intentions clear now.

"Hey, mind telling me which of these experimental new types you want me to use, boss?" Griffon was still scrolling through the experimental folder Loyd had.

"You get to choose whatever one you like. Just make sure it's saved as finished."

"Roger that, boss." Griffon continued to scroll through the folder until one of the new types caught his eye.

"Let's try out The Predator."

"Just be careful with that one, while yes, you can move very quickly your armor is next to nothing. Also, you don't get any ranged weaponry cause I've yet to design any that work with its hardpoints."

Loyd continued monitoring Griffon's sync rate as he finished synchronizing with Loyds Experimental new type.

"You think I'm worried about that? My primary fighting type is a CQC dervish." Griffon confirmed his selection and immediately regretted it.

The pain running through his entire body was intense. His head felt like it was about to explode. Then, the pain died away and he was on the battlefield that the roster had chosen.

"Damn, you could've warned me that would hurt so badly!"

"Then you wouldn't have agreed to pilot without limiters. If the pain is gone, then you can't ever go back to piloting a CTAS with limiters. Your brain and body have already gotten used to the increased strain and extra calculations the limiters normally perform." Loyd knew Griffon would be angry with him for this but he also knew what someone without limiters could do.

"Now, you still want to kick some ass, right?"

"You kidding? I've never felt more ready." Griffon stood up and stretched.

"Man, that feels good. Wait my CTAS is copying me?!"

"Flip the blue switch on your left to go back to standard piloting, or hit the green one next to it to shift cockpit into the bio type control mode."

"Then, Ima hit the green one. I've never liked the normal controls." Griffon reached over, hit the switch and watched as his seat detached from the neural tether and slid back into a compartment behind it. The rest of the controls slid forward giving him room to stand and move. Even his tether moved to be above him, instead of behind him.

"Man, this is cool! It even has an omnidirectional treadmill on the floor!"

"That it does, now remember that control scheme doesn't work with normal CTAS. It's specially built for pilots who are going to be using a bio type since the control scheme for those is different."

Loyd watched in astonishment as Griffon passed even the Twin's sync rate stopping only slightly under his own.

"Oh, and take a look at this."

Loyd sent the sync score to the holo-table and smiled as everyone either gasped or started talking.

"Oh crap, that's my new score?! How many points under you am I?" Griffon could feel the strength of his CTAS in his own arms as he asked this.

"Only about twenty points, don't worry." Loyd was actually near a hundred points but Griffon had gone from 30 to 80 just from losing the limiters.

"What?! Damn, commander! I ain't catching up to you any time soon!" Griffon laughed, not realizing the jump he had made. "Alright, I'm ready whenever they are," he added in the local chat.

"We're ready as well." Deric sounded very annoyed.

"Then I pronounce this duel officially started!" said the General who had shown up to watch. "Make sure to kick their asses, kid."

"Yes, sir." Griffon laughed, ducking down and running to his opponents' side.

"Whoa, I'm fast!" He was at their flank in only a few seconds and none of them had brought close-quarters weaponry as their primary.

Griffon jumped forward and onto the biggest one of the group, who barely managed to raise their gun in time to catch him. He still had them. His lower arms had been replaced with pile drivers, which he fired into their cockpit and reactor before jumping back.

"Damnit, shoot him!"

"Hey, now's a good time to swap one of your arms." Loyd was watching the battle intently.

"Right!" Griffon folded up one of his drivers and stored it behind him. He then pulled out a collapsible shield to block the rain of small arms fire. He charged back into the gunfire, making sure the shield covered him completely, before sliding between the legs of Deric's best pilot and delivering the killing blow.

"Gonna feel that in the morning! Oh wait, no you ain't!" Griffon turned and jumped at the back of another one of the people in the firing line and used his extra arms to punch a hole in their reactor.

"Man, Loyd, why didn't you tell me I could just use all four arms?!"

"Because I never could." Loyd was standing there staring at the battlefield rather proud of both himself and Griffon.

"Hey, you hear that?! I figured out something even the mighty Loyd couldn't!"

Griffon fired his other piledriver into the destroyed CTAS and used it to fling himself to the other end of the line. He took out another CTAS at that end with his shield, by crumpling its cockpit when he came in for a landing. He was behind them again and he took another two out, before they managed to get too many shots on him. Yet again, his shields took the bullets like they were nothing.

"You jokers are finished. Or should I call you the three stooges?" Griffon could feel a strange hunger growing in the pits of his stomach.

"Don't let that feeling take control or you'll end up eating one of them." Loyd had swapped to a private comms network with just him and Griffon.

"I got it, but I don't think I really care. Hell, why don't I want to scare them shitless?!" Griffon opened his CTAS's mouth and crouched down low with his shields folded back up, his pile drivers laying at his sides. The three remaining people, from Deric's group, had dropped their guns, shed their heavy armor, and were ready to counter Griffon before he could pull another of his crazy stunts.

Griffon launched himself forward, his piledrivers and shields swinging out and acting as extra sets of legs, making him even faster. The enemy had been ready for him to charge straight at them, but not like this. The one he had chosen as his target barely had time to raise his knife before Griffon crashed into him at full speed, sending the two of them flying.

"What the hell was that? Are you guys even trying out there?!" Deric screeched furiously.

"Cut them some slack, Deric, they aren't used to fighting monsters."

Loyd was excited, he got to witness one of his corps mates on their first hunt.

Griffon tore open the cockpit of the CTAS underneath him, its inhabitant trying to get away from him. They made a pleasant crunch as he bit them in half.

"So, this is what it's like? I think I like it, Commander. The way they crunch; it's amazing."

Griffon looked up and smiled at the other two who were backing away from him.

"It is, isn't it?" Loyd acknowledged, lowering his voice. "Don't chase the rabbit down its hole too far, or you won't come back the same person."

Loyd stared at Griffon's neural feedback and watched as it passed the danger line.

"Or you might not come back at all."

Griffon stopped when he heard Loyd say that and took a deep breath.

"Don't worry, I won't turn into a complete monster today."

Griffon's feedback fell back into the safe zone and his sync score rose even higher.

"Maybe this should be Friday's training. I'd love to see two monsters going at each other's throats."

"Sure, I'll put it on my calendar."

Loyd took a sigh of relief and continued to watch the battle.

"Hey, you guys really don't care about your teammates that much?!" Griffon grabbed the upper body of their fallen pilot where they could see it, and bit down to their screams. One of them turned and ran, while the other just stood there, the pilot having disconnected. Griffon chased down the runner and put a pile though its reactor.

"And that makes ten. I've won."

The hall remained silent for a moment, before Loyd's entire corps gave a cheer.

"That's right, you won. I couldn't be prouder to have witnessed your first hunt." Loyd sat down on one of the steps next to his pod and cheered along with the rest of his group as Griffon pulled himself out of it.

"First round of drinks is on Deric tonight, folks. I'm not trading any of you away, if that's what you can pull off."

The General stood there smiling. He had another bio-type pilot and was interested to see how many more Loyd could make. Everyone who used Loyd's pod had that possibility. It was the same connector needle, after all.