Making Waves (2)

The room that Maximiler has stepped into was a changing room for the mech pilots. A couple racks of advanced piloting suits hung from spots on both sides of the wall. He could faintly hear the sound of a shower in the distance, but he did not care to explore, as that was not why he was there.

He made his was over to one of the suits and quickly put it on. He did not bother about the size of the suit as it would automatically adjust to his body size and slim down to fit his body contours. He then walked over and picked up a piloting helmet that covered his entire head, as he wanted to prevent anyone from noticing his pale skin tone. There were other kinds of pilot interfaces that did not require a physical helmet, but Maximiler eschewed them.

A small chime rang from the earbud in his ear. A sign that his suit would have no issues with assisting his piloting. If it had responded with a negative tone, then he would have needed to change out the suit.

With a small huff, he made his way through the rest of the room, arriving at the other end that led to the mech hangar bay. He stepped through the automatic doors, exposing himself to the whirring and thrumming sounds of the various mechanical units making their way through the bay in order to reach the testing facility. At the end of the hangar, a newly fabricated unit stood aside from the rest. It was a prototype marauder class mech that was fabricated to test out its parameters for any bugs or mistakes in the calculations that preceded its testing. If there were any major or minor errors that could be corrected to better the performance of the mech, then corrections would be made before finalizing the design.

The machine was about to be tested, so Maximiler quickly made his way over to it. Upon reaching the base of the machine, a mech technician turned to him with a quirked brow.

"Roland, is that you? That was quick, I thought you just left to freshen up." The man said with a cheery tone before turning back to face the terminal he was overlooking. "The mech looks sound enough for the test run, so you can hop into the cockpit and wait for us to move you to the testing grounds." He waved Maximiler onto the lifter platform that then lifted him up to the chest portion of the mech where the cockpit was located.

The cockpit of most mechs were located in the chest section of a mech, and was hidden behind thick layers of mech grade armor plating. It was one of the most well protected areas of a mech. After all, you could lose a mech and build another one, but it was not as if you could bring back the pilot from the dead!

After hopping into the cockpit, Maximiler took a minute to appreciate the high tech interior of the cockpit. While he had seen much better during his time serving aboard USC warships, it had been a long time since he last piloted a mech physically. He had trained in simulations, but had been forced to stay away from live training sessions after he had been promoted high enough up the ladder of command.

'Alright, it's time to show my hand.' He thought to himself before strapping himself to the piloting seat properly and powering up the mech after getting the go ahead from the mech technician.

Half a dozen men and women, the technicians, who had been attending to the mech moments ago watched as the powerful war machine came to life for the first time. The machine was still firmly strapped in place, so there were no worries about any of its legs suddenly kicking forward. That said, they waited for only a few more moments before leaving the immediate vicinity of the mech and watching it get taken to the testing grounds from a safe distance.

While the mech was being towed to the testing grounds, Maximiler spent the few moments on familiarizing himself with the new machine. It had been years since he last piloted a physical mech, and this was the first time he was interfacing with a mech with this body. There were bound to be changes.

When the neural interface connected his mind with the mech's systems, he felt a sensation burn through the back of his head, before spreading to the front of his brain. It was not painful in anyway, but felt like someone sprayed cold water on his head all of a sudden.

The sensation faded quickly and he took note of his surroundings. The mechanical innards of the cockpit had faded into the backdrop of his mind, and his new view of his surroundings showed him the outside of the mech. He could see a couple of holographic screens floating in the corners of his visions that showed him the current conditions of his mech.

All in all, his perspective made him feel like he was now the mech, and it was something he had missed. It would only take a couple of minutes for him to adjust, which he quickly did. By the time he had adjusted, the lifter platform had also finally reached the designated testing area. The testing environment was enclosed in a biome that was tailored specifically to resemble a jungle. The prototype mech was deposited in a large and spacious clearing where he was meant to carry out the basic movements. After that, the proper weapon testing would commence, where they would push the limits of the mech.

"Prototype X-01, please draw your weapons." A voice echoed from some unknown speakers. Maximiler turned the mech to the side to pick up the dual pulse energy guns that were the main armament of the prototype. The moment he did, one of the holograms in the corner of his vision flashed green, showing him that the assimilation between the weapon and the mech had gone smoothly and without any hiccups.

A smile slowly spread on Maximiler's face.