Chapter 6 - Mecha and Pilot Suit

A few days later, after I finished my morning workout, I got a message from Hanz Workshop that my pilot suit was finished and I could pick it up today.

I then dropped Alicia and Melissa off at their company before heading to Hanz Workshop. When I went inside, I could see the old man Hanz sitting at the counter. It seems like he was waiting for me.

I then walked up to him.

"Sir Hiro, here it is. Your pilot suit."

He then took out a fairly large suitcase, and placed it on the counter. I opened the suitcase, inside I could see a helmet, gray suit and trousers with orange stripes, a vest that had two jet engines behind it, and a grappling hook for the left hand and an insertable sword for the right hand.

All parts of this pilot suit are connected with the vest and helmet as the center because that's where the Soladinium battery that fuels this pilot suit is located, and I have to replace it regularly.

"Hanz, how long does the Soladinium battery in this pilot suit last?"

"Depending on usage, it can last up to 10 days if you only use your pilot suit to control the Mecha. But if you use it to fight and often use the electromagnetic shield or the jet engine, then it will definitely be much faster than 10 days. My prediction is that it will run out in just 2 days at the most."

"I see."

That means just in case I have to bring at least 1 or 2 spare batteries every time I want to use it, huh?

"Would you like to test it right away, Sir Hiro? If you do, you can test it in the test room."

"No, I'll test it at home. I have a promise with my wife to go with her to do something."

That's right, today I promised Alicia to help her meet an important client. Well, I'll just accompany her, not help with the negotiations or anything like that.

"I see, that's too bad. I wanted to see you use the 3D thrust vectoring on your pilot suit."

"Yeah, sorry about that. I'll show you sometime. I'm leaving then, see you later Hanz."

"See you later, Sir Hiro. Come by anytime you want."

When I was right in front of the exit, I bumped into two women I didn't expect.

They were the pink haired woman and the red haired siblings, though today they weren't wearing pilot suits but sportswear that matched the color of their hair. What's her name again? Moshinsky?

"Ah! Sir Denzelnas, i can't believe i'll meet you here."

"Me either."

Come to think of it, she said to check the condition of her pilot suit here, right? Did they come here to pick it up?

"You came here to get your pilot suit?"

"Ah! It's just my sister's pilot suit, we decided to pick it up after doing some exercise together."

"Yo! Handsome guy, we meet again."

The redhead greeted me excitedly with a smile. She then said.

"Is what's in the suitcase a pilot suit as well?"

" It is."

"Wow, that means you're a pilot, right?"

"Yep."

"Official or Independent pilot?"

"Independent of course."

"Neenah, stop it. Don't ask personal questions like that, it's rude."

"Eeeee..... So what, Sis? He doesn't mind anyway."

"Still, it's rude to ask something like that to someone you just met!"

Even though the two of them were polar opposites in nature, it seemed like they were very close, huh.

"It's okay, Miss Moshinsky. I don't mind."

"Thank you for your understanding, Sir Denzelnas."

"Geez, you're so awkward, Sis."

"Shut up, Neenah."

I love the red haired free spirit.

I actually want to chat with them a little longer. But well, I don't have time now. I have to go immediately to pick up Alicia and Melissa to meet their client, if I'm late Melissa will explode again.

" Well, I have to do something after this so..... Goodbye ladies."

"Oh yes, I'm sorry for holding you up, Sir Denzelnas."

"See you later, handsome guy."

I then walked past them and headed to my car.

********

As soon as I arrived in front of Alicia's company, I headed straight to Alicia's room on the top floor of the building. When I entered there, I could see that she was sitting at her desk and working on something on her computer.

By the way, today she was wearing a dark blue off shoulder dress that showed off both of her white shoulders. She was beautiful as always. Noticing my arrival, Alicia turned her gaze from her computer to me.

"Sit down, I still have something to do. We'll be leaving in a few minutes."

"Okay."

After saying that, she returned her focus to her computer. I then sat down on one of the couches in the room like she said.

"Where's Melissa?"

"Picking up something I ordered downstairs."

"What order?"

Alicia gave me a hesitant gaze, before answering.

"You'll find out later."

What does that mean? Whatever, I'll just wait.

Not long after, the door opened and Melissa, dressed as a maid, came in carrying a bag. Now I understood what Alicia had just said.

"Tsk, you're already here, huh."

The moment our eyes met, Melissa immediately clicked her tongue and gave me a condescending gaze. Even though I've been trying hard to make her hatred for me disappear lately, it seems like it's all useless.

Melissa then took out a pizza box from the bag and placed it on the table. Just as I thought, Alicia must have told Melissa to take her order because she didn't want anyone else to know about it.

"Lady Alicia, here you go."

"En..."

Alicia then sat on the long sofa beside me, and Melissa sat beside her. She also took out two bottles of tea from the bag, and placed them on the table.

"Hey, where' s mine?"

"Just go and get it yourself."

"I can clearly see there's still something in that bag."

"Then here, take it yourself."

Melissa then threw the bag at me, because it was a slow throw I could catch it easily. I took out the canned coffee that was in the bag, Melissa definitely bought this from the vending machine in the lobby.

Putting the coffee down, I then moved my hand to grab the slice of pizza on the table. However, before my hand could reach the pizza slice, Melissa slapped it.

"Who said you could eat it?"

"Really?"

"Cut it out you two, just eat."

Probably annoyed by our argument, Alicia scolded both of us. Detecting the anger in Alicia's tone, we both looked at each other and then decided to stop.

"Sorry."

"Sorry, Lady Alicia."

Seems like Alicia really likes junk food now, she even got angry just because we were a little noisy while she was eating her pizza.

After that, we finished the pizza quietly. And left for Alicia's meeting location with her client.

*********

I drove our car to an upper-class restaurant located in the garden district, from the information I heard from Alicia, this restaurant was directly managed by the imperial government.

Unlike other restaurants that serve their guests at tables, this restaurant only provides a room that must be reserved before customers come here. That's why this restaurant was mostly used for meetings and such.

"Did you reserve the room?"

"Our client did."

The three of us went inside with Alicia in the lead and walked straight to the reception desk.

"Can I help you?"

"We're here to meet someone."

" Under whose name?"

"Alicia Denzelnas."

"One moment, please."

The staff checked for a moment before saying.

"Very well, Miss Denzelnas. Miss Adelina is waiting for you on the 4th floor in room 404, would you like to be escorted to that room?"

"No need."

After saying that, Alicia walked to the elevator and we immediately followed her. Inside the elevator, because I was curious, I asked.

"Who is this Miss Adelina?"

It wasn't Alicia who answered me, but Melissa.

"Miss Adelina works as an officer responsible for sending bullet supplies to some official pilots on the front lines, she is one of our regular clients."

It was rare that Melissa took the initiative to answer my questions, perhaps my efforts were not as useless as I thought.

We reached the room the receptionist had told us about, and knocked on the door. The door opened, and I could see the person who opened the door. She was a woman with long dark purple ponytail hair, she looked about the same age or maybe a little older than us, she also wore a business suit and a pair of glasses.

She smiled at us and said.

"Please come in, Miss Alicia, Miss Melissa and Sir Denzelnas."

"Thank you, Miss Adelina."

We then followed Miss Adelina and sat on the chairs in the room, after ordering tea, she started talking.

"Well, Miss Alicia. I know you don't really like small talk, so I'll cut to the chase. Just like before, we would like to order 10,000 rounds of 30 and 50mm bullets for the Mecha guns. And we also want to order level 7-9 laser bullet magazines, only this time the quantity is twice as much as before."

Miss Adelina then handed a file to Alicia, I could see Alicia's frown after seeing the file.

"Miss Adelina, I'm fine with the amount but.... Do we really have to provide it this quickly?"

"That's right, Miss Alicia. One way or another, the troops on the planet Karos are in urgent need of them. The parasyte invasion there has been extremely widespread."

Karos, huh? If I'm not mistaken it was the first planet destroyed by parasyte in the novel's timeline.

"I see. We'll try to prepare it as quickly as possible, but don't be surprised if we might be a little late."

"No problem, Miss Alicia. Hearing that from you is enough for me."

Out of curiosity, I spoke to Melissa.

"Melissa, are the two of them quite close?"

"Yeah, since Miss Adelina is our regular client, Lady Alicia has met her many times. They also have similar traits to each other and that's why they get along so well.

"Hmm.... I see."

So it turned out that Alicia also had someone who could be called a friend.

"By the way, Melissa."

"What else?"

"How long they usually talk?"

Melissa only gave me a meaningful gaze for a moment, before turning her gaze out the window. I think I knew what that gaze meant.

After that they talked about a few more things like transportation costs, taxes, and various things I didn't really understand before they finally finished.

"Well, since the business is done, how about we order some food? It's already past lunch time though."

"Ooh, you're right."

That's right, damn it. Melissa and I had been starving since earlier, but these two women were too focused on talking, and neither of us dare to interrupt them.

"You guys can order anything, feel free."

"Really?"

I asked out of curiosity, after all, the food in this restaurant as far as I knew was very expensive.

"You don't have to worry, Sir Denzelnas. Our lunch this time is directly paid for by the Imperial government."

"Oooh, no wonder then."

Not long after, our food finally arrived.

In the middle of eating our lunch, Miss Adelina spoke to me.

"Oh right, I just remembered. Sir Denzelnas, are you interested in becoming an Official Pilot?"

"Uh' Why suddenly?"

"Ahh.... Actually, one of the reasons I came here was also for this, it's just that I was going to tell it through Miss Alicia instead of telling you directly. But since you're already here so it'll be easier."

Miss Adelina sipped her juice before continuing.

"My superior, General Becker said a few days ago. "Try to recruit Captain Denzelnas' son."

So they knew my father.

"You know that I didn't graduate from the pilot academy, right?"

"Yeah. The general said that you quit because of your father's death."

She said that in a tone which sounded concern.

"And you still want to recruit me despite knowing that?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don't know, the General didn't tell me about the reason."

I was silent as I thought about why they wanted to recruit me. As I remember, my simulation score at the academy indeed was higher than average but.... it couldn't have been enough to make them recruit a cadet who didn't graduate from the academy like me.

"So. How about it, Sir Denzelnas?"

Hearing her words brought me out of my thoughts, and also, I don't know when but Alicia and Melissa stopped eating their lunch and looked at me.

"I'll think about it."

I decided to give her an ambiguous answer. I would look at the situation in the future before giving them a clear answer.

"Then we will look forward to a positive response from you, Sir Denzelnas."

"Yeah."

After that, we continued our lunch smoothly.

*******

Arriving home after meeting with Miss Adelina, I dropped Alicia and Melissa off in front of our mansion before I headed to the warehouse to test my new toy.

When I arrived, I took out my pilot suit from my suitcase and put it on right away. After making sure I was wearing it properly and that all the connections were connected, I then put on the helmet.

At first everything looked dark, but after a while a text appeared.

Starting...

10%.....100%

Starting Retina Scanner.

Retina Match.

Welcome Pilot.

I could now see everything clearly, and in the right corner of my vision I could see.

Status:

Battery: 100%

Electromagnetic Shield: 100%

Armor: Optimal

Jet Engine Processor: Strong.

Mecha Chip not detected, please enter the Mecha Chip.

Seeing the message, I quickly inserted my Mecha Chip in the back of my helmet.

Mecha Chip Detected.

Starting Connection.

10%...100%

Connection Succeeded.

Status:

Battery: 100%

Electromagnetic Shield: 100%

Armor: Optimal

Jet Engine Processor: Strong.

Mecha: Connection Strong.

Seeing that all those statuses looked good, I then thought about opening my Mecha's hatch door.

The hatch of my Mecha then opened, and I could see the seat for the pilot there. I then jumped in, sat on the seat and closed the hatch before thinking about starting the connection.

Once again, everything went dark.

Starting Neural Connection, Please clear and ready your mind.

10%...100%

Neural Connection Succeed.

My vision returned to normal, only this time my point of view felt different. That's because my viewpoint this time was taken based on the camera on my Mecha's head. It feels a little strange, but I guess I'll get used to it.

I then thought about displaying the status.

Status:

Battery: 50%

Electromagnetic Shield: 100%

Armor: Optimal.

Good, next armament status.

Status:

Jesper Shield: Ready.

Elbow Rocket: Ready.

Back Rocket: Ready.

Sword: Ready.

Aiming system: Working.

Rocket Launcher: Empty.

Everything looks good, apart from the 50% remaining battery and the empty Rocket Launcher ammo. After all, the auction only gave 1 Soladinium battery, while the Mecha needs two of them.

By the way, the Jesper Shield is a shield that can be activated for a few seconds to block enemy incoming rounds and return them, although it's not very accurate.

I decided to tried and take out the swords.

After I activated it, two swords suddenly extended from both of my Mecha's hands, although the length of the swords was only about half of my Mecha's arms, but this is enough for me.

I then tried a few slashing moves while using the swords, and it felt awesome. I'll get addicted if I keep doing this.

Man.... for a Mecha fan like me, this felt like a dream come true.

Having had enough of testing my Mecha, I then disconnected the Neural Connection and exited the pilot's seat. I took off my pilot suit helmet, while looking at my Mecha with satisfied eyes.

I'm completely satisfied, it might need some modifications, especially the color. I think I'll change the color to gray, so that it matches my pilot suit better. And of course I'll buy her a long-range weapon as well, after all that's what the 2 weapon holsters on my Mecha's back are for.

And to do all that, I need money. All my money was almost gone at the auction, and there was no way I could ask my mom for money anymore.

So.... Looks like it's time for some action.