“Alright, Cadets. Welcome to advanced piloting.” General Tennant announces once all three of them are strapped into the simulation machines.

The experience is a complete VR simulation, but the body isn’t inactive like a gaming headset. Instead, the simulation follows your natural body’s response inside the perfectly replicated cockpit of the simulator. The design was created to tone pilots’ bodies and muscle memory in the most realistic way possible.

“This isn’t basic piloting; I expect you understand the controls.” They understand the controls very well, as both had been playing downloaded simulators long before arriving at the academy and had recently been practicing their martial arts inside the Line Mecha in the VR learning programs.

“So what we will start with today is evasion. The tactical footwork that will help keep you in one piece. The best targeting skills in the world won’t help if you are not alive to use them.”

The Cadets are currently strapped into modified Line Mecha simulators, designed for the younger Cadets smaller bodies, making Max, who is already tall enough to use the regular simulators properly, feel like a giant.

The Line Mecha is the simplest and lowest grade of Mecha currently used by the Kepler Kingdom, the foot soldier of a fully mechanized force. Standing a mere 3 meters tall, a Line Mecha could easily fight within urban areas or forests, with its seated pilot taking up most of the chest.

Small Mecha like these weren’t commonly named, instead of being referred to in orders by pilot or unit designation. General Tennant preferred names when teaching Cadets.

“Cadet Nico, your evasive pattern is in your heads-up display. Executed perfectly, your unit will not be hit by the pre-programmed defensive fire. Ready in 3, 2, 1.”.

Nico watched the pattern appear in her heads-up display as she drove the small Mecha through an obstacle course, parked vehicles, and ditches. The pattern and technique were unfamiliar but closely resembled the predictive evasion patterns from her childhood memories. She pushed the Line Mecha to its limits and took only a few hits during the entire run, mostly when her footing shifted.

“Not bad for a first attempt, Cadet. But your movements are too large to react to the more rapid adjustments. Keep your feet closer to the ground unless you’re stepping over something; shift more at the hip joints and less with leg extension.”

“Cadet Max, you’re up in 3, 2, 1” Max barely had time to get himself mentally prepared, having still been taking in the advice Nico got when the instructor began his run.magicMany times incoming fire barely clipped his simulated Mecha as he made his way through the course, leaving it battle-scarred by the end of the run.

“The enemy doesn’t wait for you to think, Cadet Max. Work on those reaction times. You’re not moving your whole Mecha into the safe zones, only your piloting compartment; that’s why you’re taking so much fire. The enemy can still see you. Cadet Nico’s advice was for Cadet Nico.”

“Again!”

So went the entire first day of Advanced Piloting, all twelve hours. Nico and Max were so exhausted that they could barely drag themselves out of the simulators to shower and sleep. Food could wait until morning.

“Welcome to day two, Cadets.” General Tennant greeted them from the cockpit of the Shining Darkness the following day. “Sleep well?”

“Yes, General, like the dead, sir.” The Cadets responded in unison.

“Very good. I worried I was too soft on you for you to sleep. Now, both of you, follow me back to the simulators.”

The pattern was not the same every run. It got harder to follow every time they completed it successfully. The first six hours flew by, and both Cadets were sore and frustrated from their continued failures to achieve a perfect run, despite the constant suggestions for improvement.

The General was, in fact, an excellent teacher. His demeanor was terrifying, but he knew exactly what a Cadet needed to improve and how to explain it to them.

“Break for lunch, Cadets. Food will be delivered to us here.” He finally called, much to their relief.

At first, they were dubious about the amount of food delivered. After all, despite the recent growth spurt, they didn’t exactly have the largest stomachs. But the food was good, and they were starving.

“General, is it even possible to get a perfect run?” Cadet Max asked during a break between bites of cheeseburger.

“If it were so easy to master, I wouldn’t have to teach a course in it now would I, Cadet?” General Tennant laughed.“I know you’ve borrowed some of my memories to help, but knowing what to do and doing it perfectly every time are two very different things. Until you can do it perfectly every time, you’re nothing more than target practice for enemy mecha.”

“I’ll give you one piece of advice while we’re here, outside of the Academy’s observation of your training. Not only is the maneuver you’re given important, but so is the one you’re going to get next. Work on your situational awareness and it will speed up your progression more than anything else.

If you can predict the upcoming attacks, you can easily dodge them. Both of you possess Alpha Level System Compatibility combined with reasonably high intelligence. Considering that, a level of basic precognition through data analysis should be possible for you with practice.”

This was the longest time anyone in the academy had heard the General speak, and the only two to listen to it were his chosen Cadets.

“Is precognition something that the System can grant?” Nico asked incredulously.

“Not in a true sense, but if you train it well enough, you can unlock a variety of combat analysis skills that either mimic precognition or will effectively analyze likely enemy movements in advance and give you warning of likely incoming attacks. The system is very good at data analysis, don’t doubt its abilities.” General Tennant replied with great conviction.

He’d been through enough battles to know to trust the system’s judgment, it was right much more often than not, and a wasted round when the target didn’t appear was preferable to missing the chance for a shot you could have taken.

The system was the great advantage that the Kepler Mecha pilots had over their opponents, who had to work with what they were born to. Many other nations used drugs and genetic engineering to attempt to emulate the results of the system, but so far, none had succeeded in anything that would compare to it.

The greatest threats to Kepler Mecha armies were, therefore, not other humans but inhuman beings with superhuman abilities innate to their species.

Paying more attention to the surroundings made responding to the instructions easier after only a little practice. Under ten glancing hits per run was possible for both Cadets within the week, no matter what battlefield setting the simulator gave them.

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” Colonel Black mused, watching the simulator footage.

“They’re progressing at an astounding rate; the General has already moved the difficulty to level 2 a semester ahead of schedule.” Major Payne agreed.

“But he hasn’t even started teaching them weapon drills. Don’t you think it’s a bit too unorthodox?” one of the Imperial supervisors asked.

“All the other piloting students spend upwards of six hours a day at the shooting range improving their skills; we don’t even know if these Cadets can operate the weapons systems.”

“The General knows what he is doing. By the time the group training for the year-end inter-class competition begins in four months, they will have covered everything they need.” Colonel Black assures the bureaucrat.

‘The bureaucrats never understand the true genius of a combat veteran like him.’ Major Payne thinks to herself, silently judging the overseer sent from the central government on Kepler Prime to ensure the quality of the children’s education.

“And isn’t it odd that they all eat in total silence?” The Imperial Supervisor asks, looking at the screen.

Yes, it is. Very odd. But as the General is the highest-ranked officer on base, none of them would be willing to call him out on using his System abilities and command codes to block the audio feed on the surveillance cameras, even if he does it every lunch hour.

Nor will they be mentioning that fact to the government supervisor.