Surprise?

Just as dawn broke once more over the dark bastion, Uria woke up. Rising from her bed, she looked out at the underground city, with the academy standing out like a beacon in the distance, a faint smile on her face.

Today! Today she would experience what it feels like to control power armor after spending the past week studying all the different kinds of critters she might encounter in the tunnels and perhaps even the surface world.

The curriculum was slightly odd for her class: one week of theory and one week of armor practice. This schedule was mainly due to the teachers' busy schedules teaching different courses. Take the old fogey Frederick, for example. He teaches xenology at the mech academy while also teaching xeno-manufacturing, the discipline of making useful things from mutant remains, at prestigious universities inside the Arcology.

Washing up and changing into her uniform, she set out toward the academy with a spring in her step and a faint smile, filled with endless expectations. After arriving at the mech academy and remembering its layout, she navigated to the training arena.

The arena was a vast 100 by 100 meter circular area located on the south side of the main building, with thick steel walls to prevent accidents with shrapnel or other hazards. On the sandy ground, 15 power armors were parked in a single row, polished and ready for use.

Seeing that she was 10 minutes early, she asked the instructor if she could take a look at the armor.

The old man, who had lost an arm, simply nodded and said, "No touching that thing just yet, cadet."

Nodding to the old man, she started inspecting the power armor. The first thing she noticed was its height. Standing at a whopping 2 meters, the metallic behemoth inspired awe. From what she had read, the armors were among the most feared things on the battlefield in the old world.

Imagine being in a main battle tank, only for one of these to charge at you from behind a building. While the charge wouldn't send a behemoth weighing dozens of tons flying, it would still turn it to the side or even flip it over. Then, the armored soldier would rip off the tank's hatch and kill the entire crew quickly with a mere shot each.

Next, she noted the armor's plating. At a glance, the plating that protected the limbs was around 2 centimeters thick, shrinking to half a centimeter around the fingers for finesse in operating guns. The torso plating seemed to be made from two pieces of alloy, one on the back and one on the front.

The helmet, while covering the whole head to protect from toxic gases, had its front area made from reinforced glass, making it perfectly see-through. Inside the reinforced glass, on the right side, was a tiny screen for looking behind oneself during combat. The camera connecting to that screen was located on the very back of the head.

On the sides of the training armors were four powerful motors running on integrated batteries. Located on the shoulders and legs, these motors helped trainees control the armor due to their usually modest Quietus reserve. Proper pilots relied only on their own Quietus for two main reasons. First, controlling was much easier than relying on the motors; there wasn't a delay between the motor and the mech that existed for trainees. Second, there was familiarity. In combat, if one of the motors was damaged, the slight difference in response time or, even worse, hindering movement, could result in death. This alone made many people never want to take them into battle.

On both sides of the alloy boots were two wheels each, the same wheels used to quickly traverse flat ground by Kraft and his rescue squad.

Having finished her inspection, Uria turned around and sat on the bench, waiting for the others to arrive. Ten minutes passed quickly, and the remaining trainees showed up one after another. Seeing everyone had arrived on time, the instructor loudly shouted, "ATTENTION!"

Hearing his words, everyone formed a neat line, with Erst first and Uria last.

"Let's start today with a quick introduction due to the new face. My name is Kali, and I'm your piloting instructor. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

Finishing his explanation, he told everyone to get into an armor. Seeing how the others simply lifted the front plate of their armor and got in, she was about to do the same when Kali spoke to her:

"Oh, and, retrainee, since you're here for accelerated training, the motors on yours won't be working. I'd rather you fail the test than go out there and get yourself killed after only two weeks of training."

"Got it, sir." Without paying too much attention to what Kali said, or noticing the old man touching the place where his arm once was with sadness, she climbed into the now open mech and closed the front plate cover.

With excitement and expectation on her face, she roused her Quietus. Feeling a thin field of energy around her start to spread out in every direction, she began channeling it to control the armor. Feeling the energy enveloping the armor's material around her, it slowly started seeping into it, bit by bit. Now feeling as if there was a new layer of flesh on her body, one that had always been there, Uria tried to perceive every minute detail of her new exoskeleton.

Closing her eyes, she raised her leg, the suit following that action perfectly. Doing the same with her arms and feeling a slight sluggishness, she turned her armor around, facing the instructor.

"Sir, I think the motors on my arms aren't working as intended. They feel like they're hampering my movements. Is it possible to remove them?"

After thinking about it for a moment, Kali agreed and called over one of the technicians who were always on standby.

These technicians, although not the best in the world, were still top-notch. Hired by the academy to provide support and help to trainees regarding almost anything armor-related, they were always on standby during academy hours, even if most of that time was spent idle.

Pulling over a trolley with a mechanical arm and some other tools on it, the technician glanced at the motors and got to work. Spending only a dozen seconds removing each motor with the mechanical arm, the annoyed technician returned to his colleagues to discuss the newest mech model by DiaTech.

After the technician left, she tried moving around without the motors slowing her down. At first, she walked. Then she ran. Then she jumped. Then she slid. Then she tried punching.

She started pulling back her hand slowly, feeling the tiny changes in the armor as she prepared. Then, using as much of her Quietus as she could, she threw a haymaker at the empty air. The wind pressure generated from her punch sent a large amount of sand flying more than a dozen meters.

Seeing her current power and knowing she could still keep going as that haymaker only used a tenth of her reserve, she realized what had just happened. The embers she thought were extinguished long ago had reignited. Before she was sent here, there was nothing left to challenge her in her previous world.

Take the last worthy opponent she had faced in her previous world, for example. One of the 10 Fingers of the Inferno, Demon Lord Zhangor, who led the infernal horde to invade her world. Their battle, said to have shaken the very heavens and made the entire northern continent uninhabitable due to their residual energies, lasted 11 whole days and nights.

Looking at the present time, where she had started over, she couldn't wait to fight again. To fight endless battles again, and to grow even stronger!. 

Turning around while oozing satisfaction and having a smile on her face, she noticed everyone looking at her in shock.

"Didn't you claim to have lost your memory?" Kali questioned, shock and confusion on his face.

"Yeah, I did lose my memory, but... It just felt so natural to control the mech. Maybe it's because I've already been trained before."

"Girl, I've taught here for 10 years since I lost my arm. Do you really think I didn't help others with accelerated training? ONLY THE MOST ELITE OF GENIUSES HAVE MANAGED TO EXHIBIT THIS LEVEL OF CONTROL! AND THAT WAS DUE TO THEIR PREVIOUS TRAINING PROVIDED BY THEIR FAMILY! SPEAK, WHOSE FAMILY ARE YOU PART OF?!" Kali's face grew more and more solemn as he kept shouting.

Slightly irritated, she was about to reply, but Erst beat her to it.

"She's a commoner without any background, instructor. I don't think you should be shouting about her talent when she doesn't even have half the Quietus reserve I do. So please stop praising the 'talent' of a commoner in my presence. It is utterly insulting to my heritage, after all."

Even more shocked after finding out she was a commoner, the instructor wanted to say something, opening and closing his mouth a few times without knowing what exactly to say. In the end, he simply raised his hand, pointed to the door, and said:

"I will apply for you to graduate early from the academy. And try not to die out there. You got lucky once after all."

Silence followed his statement. Even the technicians were intrigued by her now. Not too many get to graduate early from the academy.

"I... understand? Thank you for your kindness, instructor," she replied, puzzled but not forgetting to thank him.

"Instructor!" Erst turned around while wearing the armor toward Kali. "Do you really think I'm worse than that commoner trash to the point where she can graduate early and I cannot? DO YOU?"

"Yes, completely," the old man replied simply, looking him directly in the eyes the whole time.

Without knowing how to respond, Erst kept looking back at the old man's resolute gaze. After a few moments, he said, "Whatever," exited the armor, and left the arena with a conflicted expression on his face.

Watching the entire spectacle unfold, she didn't want to say anything to stir up unnecessary drama. Leaving the grounds slightly after Erst, she spent her day exploring the bastion leisurely. Bit by bit, the lights turned dimmer, signifying the start of nighttime. She had spent most of the day slightly restless, knowing that tomorrow she would get to go out on missions again. Returning to her room, she waited for the morning to come, knowing this would be a sleepless night.