5 The Hidden Memory (MIU Re-initiation test)

Aster felt everyone was watching him silently, he could only leave the place and walked out of the room then walking to the room where Ashlin previously mentioned before as he arrived and opened the door to the room.

"Oh, you already arrived Aster... let's begin then," said the girl as he quickly turns her heads away to the simulation cabin.

"Ehm, yeah... so then what's next sis?" said Aster looking at her.

Aster even though he listened to the girl's word he ignored it like he never heard of it being ignored by Aster caused the girl to be angry that her face turned to red because of the embarrassment made by him.

"Okay, the two of you can go and get inside that simulation pod over there," said Ashlin as she is still coordinating with the Technician.

"Understood sis," said Aster as he walks to his designated pod.

"Yes, ma'am," said the girl as she also walks to her designated pod.

Arrived at his pod, Aster quickly pressed a button which caused the pod door to open revealing the inside of the pod looking inside the pod for a moment there is not much change made to the inside of the pod since he once took a test inside the pod in the past.

Entering the pod door slowly closes on its while at the same time the emergency light glows revealing the inside of the pod, Aster looking at the hole inside the machine he quickly pulls something from his waist which revealed a medium-sized control which has a plughole on the back handle of it, putting it to the hole the machine pulled it inside grabbing it tightly before he pulls a plug from his watch putting it on the controller.

After a few moments later, a hologram appeared from the screen in front of Aster showing almost the same size as he is, previously Lucy appeared small and look like a Chibi in front of him shown an image of a 17 or 18-year-old girl in a sleeping position as she wakes up from her sleep before she started to notice her master was sitting in front of her.

"Oh, is everything is okay Aster," said Lucy.

"Well I will explain it to you in a minute but I need to optimize the system now, help me out so I could easily tell you," Said Aster as he pressed a couple of buttons and turning on the machine.

"Okay, I will make sure the program is taken care of... Aster can optimize the screen" said Lucy.

Aster who is preparing everything for the test tells the story after he stopped using her as part of the extended part of himself to the day he turns her on once more as he slowly lay out the story well enough, Lucy who is listening was carried out with emotion as she angry of what other had done to him and sad for his lost but Aster bear no losses to it but he gave thanks for her being caring for him.

"Yeah, but now as you thought now, I'm being challenged by a young girl but my sister seems happy seeing her fighting against me and she looked happy when I looked at her," said Aster as he sighs later at the end of the talk "So Lucy who's the program?" as he continued.

"The program is no good, we need to remake the program from the scratch for this machine," said Lucy while looking at the program code from time to time after looking at Aster.

"Can you take care of its Lucy?" asked Aster as he making final optimization to the screen.

"No need to say, I'll finish it quick enough before the test starts," said Lucy while raising her chest in pride before turning back to start coding the program.

With it, Aster started to boot up the entire machine as a hologram controller appeared near his hand and leg as the monitor in front of him showed the entire scenery in front of his eye which revealed a large green field before the sound feedback working functionally which surprised him with an explosion far away as it was a norm during the battlefield as his monitor also turned to the side as he finds a few mechs at his side which telling him that he is currently inside what appears to be a mech hangar from the looks of it.

"Ah, how nostalgic this place is," said Lucy with astonishment

"Yeah, Lucy" Answered Aster while looking at the map on the top right of his view "If I weren't wrong our enemy should arrive from the back a few of the mech at our side is destroyed by enemy fire" as he continued remembering his memory.

Remembered it Aster sigh in tiredness that he turns his body to the side and initiate a side jump to his right as an enemy mech appeared from the back of the hangar as the two mechs which previously on his side before were instantly cut into two pieces by a horizontal slash before it's exploded to pieces as Aster noticed he only had a pistol he quickly turns his body toward the enemy mech and at the same time pull the pistol then discharged it load towards the enemy which caused great and significant damage to its left hand, where he quickly made a maneuver to the left side where the second mech appeared behind that damaged mech.

Covering that damaged Mech with a large shield covering its body charged toward where Aster is currently at as he put the pistol back while changing to a short-range combat knife noticing the enemy shoulder were not covered he throws it at it as he quickly grabs a battle rifle laying down on the floor near his feet as rifle was equipped by Aster, he quickly line his aim at the enemy who started to turn its body trying to pull the knife out from planning to strike Aster with it but without much thinking, Aster quickly pulls the trigger causing the bullet to hit its target perfectly on the head before being finished with a shot to the chest where the cockpit where the pilot is at the shield being hold on were later released as it fell together with the mech.

The mech behind it managed to get away and take cover a bit far away from Aster escaping from the counter-attack while Aster, on the other hand, looked at the rifle magazine to see it's only half-filled after the battle where he quickly walks to the hangar finding many supplies of the same caliber.

"Good thing this battle is quite easy to fight against but later on it will be harder than this, especially I have to fight against her which is very tiresome... Aiyah" said with tiresome looks.

"From the record, this combat shown your skill in piloting did not diminish but instead improved to a certain extent though Aster," said Lucy with excitement.

Aster looking to another corner noticed a wing attachment and some small bag for the ammunition that could be used during combat as he tries to rewire the gear to connect with his mech and making sure everything is ready before the battle against the enemy.

"Lucy is it connected?" ask Aster bit worried.

"Well... it's connected but I need to make some certain adjustments please wait for a moment Aster" answered Lucy in monotone.

"It's fine just take your time," said Aster in a tired tone.

Aster who finally has some moment of rest look at the scenery near him as he turns his head to examine the surrounding waiting for Lucy and after a moment later...

"It's done Aster, now starting the engine... Alright everything is ready," said Lucy with excitement.

"Haha... I want to take a rest but what can you do," said Aster with a wry smile.

For a moment Aster pressed the start button which booted up the large jetpack on his back warming it up before the thrust pushed the mech he is on were pushed to the skies where he gets closing into the sky nearing maximum altitude before entering the space, with maximum speed elevating above the ground by accident Aster noticed something that came from the ground which flew fast towards him which made him evade it by the reflexively while air traveling succeeding to evade it after a moment later at the very least few meters apart explosion was heard behind him at the very least few meters away from him from range 105 Km west to his position, He quickly made a 180 degrees turn as he quickly increases his speed to that area to neutralize the spot from any possible enemy threat that could or may harm him later.

After carefully scanning from where he is currently at, Aster fund four mechs on the horizon as he pulled the trigger while targeting a mech beside the shielded mech hit on the head the mech fell to the back crashing to another mech on its back while the two mechs which still function well quickly fired back but what happen next were something unexpected by them as Aster quickly throttle up his engine to them attempting to crashing with his mech's leg to the shielded mech.

At that very moment, he pulled the combat knife from his waist then throw it to the another mech's head blinding the pilot's vision as he waits for his vision to clear up, Aster finds an opportunity to aimed his rifle at the Mech cockpit he previously crashed onto before then he pulled the trigger causing a couple of sounds to be heard then put down his rifle where the large hole on the cockpit before that has some mixed color of red and black were seen on it.

(Note: the blood is virtual blood that is made to convince the act of its pilot's action and would not cause death as it was used to visualize what would happen in real life.

As of afraid the mech who is standing in front of him were filled with fear causing it to stayed its distance away from Aster but with fast movements that distance was closed in very quickly where he previously grab an axe he has taken from the destroyed cockpit where pulled from its weapon sheathe before throwing it to the enemy's leg disabling its movements thus made the Mech to fall much faster then it's supposed to where the pilot quickly opened the cockpit in hurry not wanting to be killed by Aster as if programed or trained to do it Aster fired a couple of shot at the virtual pilot in cold blood.

"Aster... you killed him, you didn't let him off just a single bit, time may pass but you didn't change much," said Lucy with a bit heavy tone.

"... True, I haven't changed much," said Aster in a monotone "it's the same even it already in my muscle every time I tried to it still hard" as he continues with a bit pain.

"There, there even though you can't do much... at the very least you had tried," said Lucy attempting to comfort him.

The Mech which previously fell by its partner was already dead so he doesn't do anything but to look at his surroundings, Aster was famous to not leave any man behind alive and kills them on sight as he aims his gun at other unbroken cockpits nearby him before he heard three sound around him as he later grabbed his combat knife and axe that were thrown before.

"Aster even so you are more vicious than before," said Lucy while looking at Aster.

"Ah... Well after we didn't see each other for long I stayed away from this kind of job but never thought I would see much worse battle than the last one" said Aster with a wry smile.

"... no wonder," said Lucy while looking down.

Aster after leaving MIU and due to the event, that caused him to leave it had caused him to start slowly losing every emotion he has the only fragment of it left, Aster also convinced himself that he already lost what it means to be someone who cares and being human who empathizes to other.

Lucy may know him for a long time but his habit changed after that event causing him to start losing the grip on his emotion which made her only hold herself down, added with the fact that every family member of the Grams was required to be in the army throughout their entire life.

"Aster," said Lucy with a worried voice.

Aster did not say any word as he stared down on the broken mech before staring the rifle on his mech hands still showing about half of the magazine remaining while on his other hand carrying the axe smeared with blood.

"Aster there is a squadron coming to this place from the north, the target is directly the backline of the group," said Lucy as she found four dots on the radar.

Listening to the order Aster slowly turns his head left and seeing four mechs coming him fast, one carries a rifle, one carries a shield, another carries a large-sized axe, while the last one carries a pistol and combat knife while approaching Aster one of them raised its rifle while aiming at him but suddenly Aster who was holding the axe throws it at the group not seeing the axe first they were surprised as it flies toward them faster than their reaction speed as it landed deep but above the cockpit of the Mech who carries the rifle.

Aided with his Jetpack, Aster jumped over quickly at the group while brandishing his combat knife pushing deep on the squad while the shielded mech managed to block the charge as it holds back the force by Aster jetpack while standing as the other still remembering the event they just saw.