Mecha Pilot

"Sir, is there anything we can help you with?" Arnold asked Ed when he was called to Alpha-Charlie's hangar bay with the pilot in training.

He had his guess on why he was called, but he asked just for a formality and to be polite to his new superior.

He looked at the red-haired girl behind Ed before looking back at him as it was not his place to ask why the heir of the Terror family was on his side.

Aya was feeling a bit awkward and guilty because if not for her then these people would not be forced to join them and their friends would not die in vain.

On the other hand, Ed was looking at the person with his advisor, "Adam, I have a high expectation of you, be sure not to disappoint me," he said in greeting.

"Yes, Sir," he answered with a flat tone and no expression.

Ed was quite interested in the young man, ever since his capture and being forced to become a pirate, he did not show a single emotion.

"I should ask Arnold about him, there must be something special about him," Ed thought.

"I have gathered you here for a purpose, I want to know how you fare in a combat situation so I had asked Altea to prepare a simulator where I can observe your piloting skill, for the first simulation I will be joining you in a free-for-all fight, the last man standing would be the winner," he explained to his crew.

Seeing there was no question from his people, Ed signed Altea to activate the simulation pod that was prepared in the room.

Everyone went for their assigned pod, the simulation would take set on an asteroid belt where there would be enough obstacles to hide behind. He prepared that so it would be ideal for a free-for-all fight.

Once he entered the pod, Sol was faced with quite a few selections of mecha, he was not familiar with any of them other than the C-2 and Red Falcon model but he decided to use a melee swordsman mecha that has a similar tech level with the Red Falcon.

He did not choose the C-2 model because he wanted to know how good was his piloting skill after drinking the experience soda. If he used the C-2 then it would not reflect his skill even though he won the simulation.

Once he chose his mecha, Ed found himself inside a swordsman mecha, it used two long swords; it was still in the medium mech category, but with less mass than the C-2.

The C-2 was designed to take a beating for extended periods of time, while the mecha he used was more of a mobile fighter that used boosters to dodge enemy's fire and attack.

After a minute, the other seems to have chosen their own mecha, Ed found his mecha was transported to a space setting with hundreds of asteroids flying everywhere.

Through the mecha's sensors he detected three other mecha scattered on the asteroids. He could know which mecha was piloted by who because he needed to judge each pilot's skill, normally he would not know who was piloting them.

This time he did not have Altea to give him a report and analysis, as it would not be fair to the others if it helped him.

Luckily Ed knew what to do from the experience he got from the experience soda, he checked the sensor data for enemy detail.

It detected two rifleman mech and a melee swordsman mech from the video feed he got before they hid behind asteroids. The melee mecha was an unfamiliar model, while the rifleman mech was the Red Falcon model.

The Red Falcons was piloted by Arnold and Adam, both of them decided to use a familiar model instead of using other mecha.

Ed's new mecha did not have any ranged weapon system but like the C-2 but with its booster and asteroids as cover, he was confident that he could close the distance without any problem.

Aya, who was piloting a melee mecha already getting closer to Arnold's Red Falcon, she maneuvered her mecha with such elegance while dodging laser attacks that were fired by the man.

Ed found that the mecha she piloted was smaller and faster than his mecha or the C-2, she was piloting a light mecha. It excelled in speed and could dodge a lot easier in exchange for endurance and firepower.

The light mech armor was thinner and its musculature was not as strong as medium mecha, it made it up with agility, as long as it could close the distance with the medium rifleman mech then it would be able to dismantle it easily.

Ed did not have time to watch her fight as the other Red Falcon already found a good position to take a shot at him.

With a sudden burst of speed, Ed dodges the laser and moves closer to the offending mecha. He had around two kilometers to go before he reached his enemy and he did not want to get hit just yet.

His current mecha was not as advanced as the alien mecha, it could not repair itself and its armor system was not as good as it. If he already got hit so soon, then he would be taken down before he could reach the rifleman mecha.

Just as the booster stopped, another laser already fired at him, Ed could not use the booster consecutively as it would need some time before it was ready to be used again, moreover, it took quite a lot of fuel to activate the booster, he would need to use it sparsely if he did not want to run out of fuel in the middle of a fight.

The laser hit the swordsman mecha on the shoulder, but it was not enough to pierce its armor just yet.

Ed hurriedly took cover behind an asteroid before he got shot at again, "If this is the C-2 then it could just fly straight at it," he lamented.

With no other choice, he used an evasive maneuver while going from one asteroid to another. He did not use any more booster, as he only had five charges of the booster in a single deployment; he was saving it for an emergency.

The ranged Mecha shot at him once he got out from behind the asteroid. It was fighting him while moving back so it would take longer for him to reach it.

Ed tried to block the lasers with his dual sword but he could not block them all as the laser was faster than light, it would hit him before he had the chance to move.

"This pilot in training is even better than the pilot I fought before. He could hit me with such accuracy even if I use evasive maneuver and still this far away," he commented.

He was about to move the sword once more to block another laser attack, but he found it did not respond as smoothly as he wanted.

"Huh?" he checked his Mecha to find that the laser was actually only hitting its right and left shoulder, it already made the right of his mecha unresponsive.

"he is way better than I thought!" he realized as he used his booster to dodge another hit on the mecha's right shoulder.

He was six hundred meters away from the rifleman mecha and it would not be long before he reached it, but to his surprise, the mecha suddenly stopped moving backward and went after him instead.

Adam was going for melee as he had disabled one of swordman mecha's arms and he had a good chance of winning a melee duel.

The other reason he was going for melee was his laser rifle was close to overheating and he would need to let it rest before he continued firing, rather than wait for it to overheat and give Ed a chance to breathe, he went in for melee instead.

"This guy is so skillful and has a good fighting instinct. How did a mercenary group have someone like this in their group?" Ed mused as he got ready to receive the incoming mecha.

He hid behind an asteroid as it was still firing at him with its laser, "If you want to get closer, then I will just wait for you," Ed smiled to himself.

His sensor detects an increased energy reaction as the rifleman mech already reaches him. It has landed on the asteroid on top of his mecha and overcharges its laser rifle.

Ed hurriedly boosted away to dodge before it could fire. He barely dodges the laser before he reoriented his mecha to fight the rifleman mecha.

Adam threw away the overheated laser rifle and two hidden blades popped out of the mecha's arm.

"Hahaha, I found a diamond!" Ed was happy instead of troubled, he thought he picked up rocks and they turned out to be diamonds.

The blades about to hit him when he used his sword to block them with a quick move, "Of course I won't go down without a fight," he grinned.