Max changed quickly and got in the elevator to go to the Structural Labs on the floors above him, while Nico took off for the Testing Bays again to work on the new Crusader Class Mecha. He was getting more and more worried about what Nico had said, but he had determined to just ignore it, for now, at least he had until Lilith herself came up to talk to him.

“That little friend of yours is an interesting one, isn’t she? You might not know it to look at me, but I also have an Alpha Ranked System Compatibility, only my Innate Talent and initial System Talents were all better suited to Lab work than piloting. I can sense emotions through the system, things like happiness, intrigue, and lust. But the only time she showed any sign of emotion was when the conversation turned to weapons designs.” Lilith said gently as they rode in the elevator towards their station.

“She’s always been like that. Ammosexual a lot of the Cadets called it.” Max laughed, making Lilith smirk.

“That’s a good word for it. I thought it might be a side effect of the conversion, but if she has been like that since the Academy, it must not be the case. Such an odd tiny woman. She told me a bit about your circumstances before we parted ways today as well. Don’t worry, if you’re truly interested in our little Moonie, Big Sister Lilith is right here to help you.” The last part was whispered so that the other occupants of the lift wouldn’t hear her, and it made Max’s face blush bright red.

Nico might be the greatest wingman any Pilot could ask for, but did she really need to employ her assistance skills here? He hadn’t done anything to annoy her, had he? Max clearly recalled the amusement that she got by sending debutantes to him during the events surrounding the recruitment of the 43rd Armored.

“I will keep it in mind, but for now, work comes first,” Max said politely, then realized that Lilith could sense his emotional fluctuations far better than she could detect the inflection of his voice.

The team chatted all the way up to the lab, and Max learned a lot about this team. They had been together for two years now, and most of the ten were veteran researchers. Moonie had been pulled from an Academy in the Kepler Core worlds early due to her brilliant designs, and so was much younger than most, while Lilith was treated more as the team’s work mom, or Big Sister as she preferred.historical

Like Major Payne, back at the Kepler Terminus Academy, her aging had been significantly slowed by the System, and she had been working in top echelon Mecha development for well over forty years now. She had twin boys, who were now long since graduated, and were Piloting Mecha in the planetary guard on her homeworld, but they hadn’t inherited her System Compatibility, instead getting low Delta Ranked assessments that were passed over during recruitment thanks to their planet’s large population.

Using family relations as a form of address was strange to Max, but he knew that it was common in many worlds. Calling friends brothers or sisters, respected seniors at work Auntie or Uncle. Uncle Lu was a perfect example, as most of the staff called him that way unless there was a good reason to be formal, like a direct assessment of their work. Sister Lilith was the same way, and a pitiful fate awaited anyone foolish enough to refer to her as Auntie. Max considered sticking with Major Lilith, but the habits of the team were quickly wearing off on him, and by the time they had the simulator set up three hours into their shift he had already fallen into the pattern.

“Simulation is up. Whenever you are ready we can begin initial function checks.” Lilith called, bringing Max’s attention away from his coffee and back to work.

Max booted up the simulation and found himself in a very spacious cockpit, with a familiar control panel, as well as redundant secondary controls of a Comor design that was dropped when they Allied with the Kepler Empire. Max wasn’t fully familiar with them, but they were clearly labeled, so he thought he could figure them out easily enough when the time came.

The interior was as spartan as would be expected of a Military Mecha, but there was a bunk as well as an abundance of storage behind his seat, and the roof was high, making the interior have more of a feeling of a long-haul transport or a small cargo shuttle.

[Powering on] Max announced, flipping the switches one after another in the standard power-up sequence.

If things went wrong at this point, the coders were going to have a very bad day tomorrow, but fortunately, the mecha powered up, and the screens in front of Max came to life, showing the simulated view of a large training compound, the featureless default area where most alpha testing was done.

[Let’s begin at the fingers and work our way up the arms first] Lilith informed Max over the intercom, and he moved through the joints one by one, making sure everything worked.

First the left arm, then the right. The Torso swivel, the main sensor pod, then down the hips, checking both legs at once.

With all the joints functional, it was time to check the Gyroscope programming, which would keep the mecha upright while walking or otherwise balancing on one leg. This is where they ran into the first problem. Max wasn’t sure if it was coding or a hardware issue, but the moment he began to lift a foot, the other one began to sink into the dirt of the testing area.

The X137 was clearly a Super Heavy Mecha, going by the height Max was looking down on the ground from, even though he couldn’t see much of the outside from his vantage point, so the weight would be over 150 tonnes. Without the anti-gravity plating working correctly it would sink like a rock almost everywhere it went.

The foot sunk up above the ankle joint, before the dirt below was compacted enough to hold the weight, but that was a definite fail.

[Weight distribution system shows fully operational, please adjust calibration.] Lilith informed Max, who dutifully reprogrammed the settings to increase the output.

After a reset of the surroundings to stock, Max attempted to move again and encountered the same result.

[Confirmed error in Weight Management activation. We will have to abort the movement for now.] Lilith’s voice over the intercom in the simulator sounded sad.

[Try environment setting L18. It’s a volcanic island, and the ground is sturdy enough to take the weight.] Max suggested.

[Not a bad idea. Resetting surroundings. Confirmed, begin gyroscopic tests without malfunctioning systems.]

The Gyroscope programming was so far off that the machine violently lurched and shuddered every time Max tried to move the legs until he eventually had to turn it off and put it into programming mode, while he moved the Mecha on his own.

That was the advantage of a skilled test pilot, being able to operate without all the usually essential functions, but even when the settings were reprogrammed the system still failed.

[That’s enough for the day. We will all be writing reports for the rest of our shift, so the night shift can start trying to figure out what is wrong with the gyroscope.] Lilith sighed, beginning the shutdown countdown on the simulation.

X137 was an incredible Mecha, from what Max could tell, but it needed a lot of work.