As expected, the Abraham Kepler departs promptly the next morning, on a mission to return the veteran troopers. There is an entire month to kill, so Max decides to take some time to relax and get to know how things are usually done in the other Special Tactics Units. Only, as he discovers, there are none left on board.

All the ones that were with the 42nd were lost in the last few battles, and the so-called Noctem Regiment, that came with Carpe Noctem, was a fully ceremonial unit up until a month ago. According to the data that he received from Nico, the political problems that forced General Tennant to take them off Kepler Terminus in such a hurry also caught up to the Carpe Noctem and her pilot. Max isn’t sure if it is suspicious or deliberate that they have ended up together aboard a transport, but two Phalanx Class units in one spot is a highly unusual event. The official deployment form for the Abraham Kepler doesn’t even have a column for a second Phalanx Class deployment.

He also hasn’t gotten any more information about the upcoming deployment to his unit yet, so all he really has to do is kill time. As Max wanders the hallways he hears cheering and shouts of encouragement from the training area in the corner of the reserve barracks.

That is immediately suspicious, everyone here has been excused from regularly scheduled training for the duration of their transit time. There shouldn’t be much of anyone except a few health nuts in the training rooms, much less a large enough crowd to raise a ruckus that he could hear from the end of the hall.

Max makes his way over, the crowd parting with muttered complaints as he approaches in uniform. The enlisted don’t have the right under military rules to stop him from going where he wants, so Max walks straight in, only to find that they have modified the Virtual Reality boxing program to allow multiple opponents. Six troopers are in VR pods facing away from the crowd, and the data screens all around the room are showing the fights.

Nobody is going to get hurt in a simulation, so Max removes his hat and coat to show he’s not here on official duty and leans up against a support pillar to watch the next match._.

There are six pods, so Max assumed it was a three-on-three fight, special forces attack squad style, but that isn’t what comes up on the screen.

[Major Nico vs Charlie Company] Round 3 Begins

Max just laughs when he sees the fight. They may or may not know it yet, but they are about to get obliterated.

There is a lot of shouting and betting going on, so Max tosses in 5 credits on Nico, getting the crowd worked up.historical

“See that, boys? The Pilots think they are all that. The odds are 5 to 1, the same as the fight. Get those bets up, the betting ends when the first punch is thrown!” The Corporal in charge of the bets shouts over the din getting the last few bets in before the fight.

The bell rings to signal the beginning of the round and Nico immediately rushes forward, grabbing one of her opponents by the leg and twisting. Despite her size, the system has made her more than strong enough to toss a grown man around like a ragdoll. It would have been kinder if that was what she actually did. Instead, she spun him in a circle, using him as a club to beat his teammates with, raising a wave of jeers and laughter from the crowd.

“No way is she that strong. Major Max, that has to be a glitch, right?” One of the soldiers asks and Max shrugs.

“Watch this and you will understand,” Max tells the curious man, before grabbing him and throwing him all the way to the twenty-meter roof of the training room, jumping up to catch him halfway down.

“Everyone knows that we get a huge benefit from the system that allows us to pilot at a level that no others could, but nobody thinks about what that means when an Alpha Ranked System user is outside their mecha. My modified strength is just over 6 points.” Max explains, and a lot of the troopers gasp.

“At that point is there even a reason to give you a mecha? Why not just give you body armor and a club and let you beat the Line Mecha to death?” The trooper asks, tapping Max to ask the Major to let him down from the princess carry that Max caught him in.

“The Line Mecha is big enough to carry the power pack and ammunition a pilot needs for battle. That’s why the environmental suits for the political guards are so heavily armored and not more mechanically powerful. The person inside them makes up for the difference.” Max tells the soldier with a smirk, setting him back on his own feet.

The fight is short and brutal, ending in under fifteen seconds without Nico taking a single hit, despite the decade of experience that the troopers have.

“That’s the round gentlemen. Winners come up here and claim your pay.”

Max collects his 25 credits with a smile at the infantrymen just before a whistle sounds from down the hallway and everyone goes silent, pretending to be working out as the combatants exit the simulators.

They catch on fast that everyone is putting on an act, and make like they are recovering between sets just as the Colonels from the 42nd armored, Marino and Romano, walk into the room.

“Colonels, good to see you here. Have you come to get in a few reps while the gym isn’t quite as deserted as usual?” Max asks while the two cast suspicious looks around the room.

“We had reports of a disturbance and illegal gambling going on here. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you Major?” Colonel Marino asks suspiciously.

“Lots of disturbance, the boys got a little worked up. You know how infantry get when they need to burn off some steam. But there isn’t much to bet on unless someone wants to try to beat the daily reps challenge.” The challenge is generated by the Abraham Kepler’s computer, based on the usage patterns of the various gyms, so this one, being in the zone assigned to veteran mecha pilots, is set to a standard that nobody without a Beta Ranked or higher system could possibly complete.

To start with, the leg press weight is over a ton, for 25 reps. Max can complete it without much trouble, but a bunch of Gamma and Delta-ranked infantrymen? Not even at the end of their term when their system bonuses and natural strength are at their peak.

The two Colonels relax a little as the soldiers continue to exercise, following a standard training regimen, but with a bit of added motivation. They have already arranged matches against some of the Line Mecha squads, who are mostly Gamma with a few weaker Beta Ranked Systems among them. Those matches they might actually stand a chance against. These elite Crusader Pilots just have too big of an advantage over them to overcome.

Assured that nothing too out of line is happening, the two Colonels strip to tank tops to begin their daily workout, inspired by the supposed enthusiasm the infantry are showing. They might be on their way home, but getting there in good shape is still a priority. After all, They have been under military supervision since age 12. Not a single one of them is married, and there aren’t many women left in the units to choose from, none at all that the senior officers would be allowed to fraternize with, so coming home as war heroes with a lifelong pension, getting married and having a whole litter of children sounds like a pretty good life.

Their last two deployments didn’t even have civilian women around who might entertain a friendly compensated offer after all, and that can bring the mind to delusions if left unchecked.

That becomes a daily routine for everyone, fights in the morning, that the senior officers pretend they don’t know about, but with the betting toned down to prevent anyone from getting in financial troubles on their way home, or attracting the attention of higher authorities. Then lunch, followed by an afternoon workout and a trip to the leisure facilities to practice 3D Pool and other ‘essential skills’.

Max opts out of most of them. Instead, he opts for studying the wide variety of military tactics used by successful Special Tactics Units in the past. Nico gladly helps him with that, sending him new material to study every day. Max isn’t quite sure where she keeps finding them, but with her skills at hacking, it is probably better that he doesn’t ask too much.

The data he finds in the tactical summaries sometimes resonate with memories from his past, giving him new ideas about Mecha and infantry tactics that would have worked as well or better in that situation, which triggers more and more of Max’s repressed memories of his past life but unfortunately still mostly ones of combat, and nearly nothing about his actual life, hobbies, or previous personality.

The extra knowledge is still a win though, and if nobody in this lifetime has used a tactic, that just means it will be even more effective when he does because nobody will expect it. The memories of Nico’s past are the same, but whatever force she came from wasn’t big on human rights, so some of the tactics that they employed aren’t ones that Max could use in good conscience.