Max waved at Alex as he entered the VR room, Jolana following behind, "Hey Alex. Made much progress on those schematics I had sent over?"

Alex glanced up, waving idly before staring back at the display, setting a few more things in place before they started, "Plenty. But you will see soon anyway, so let's get started~"

Jolana giggled as she made her way to a chair, only spectating this time ratherthan joining the sim, "All Alex has been doing for the entire week. Sorry if they are a little... Distracted."

Max laughed as he eased into one of the seats, lowering his helmet with a grin, "Guess I shouldn't keep you waiting then. You joining me inside?"

Alex blinked, nodding with a chuckle as they lowered their own helmet, "Right. Just got caught up in it." Closing their eyes, Alex cycled down the AHOR, already bouncing around in the sim... But Max shouldn't know that.

Rolling her eyes as she watched, pulling up her own display to get a good view, she sent a message to Alex asking if running the sim through a projector would be a hassle. Receiving a quick confirmation that it would be fine, she went to look around for a miniature model for now.

Once Max was ready in his White Room, Alex opened up access to the main sim for him, loading him in. Peeking his head in curiously, he nodded in appreciation, "Nicely done. Heck, I think you even added more detail."

Alex nodded meekly, "Well, I ran some algorithms to simulate wear and the like. Give it a more... Realistic feel." Looking around, they were in the middle of a industrial sector from Mars, narrow alleyways forming a highly structured grid system, fading off into the distance. An accurate representation fo what the terrai was like near the Mars facility, at the onset of the war... Where it hadnt been shelled yet.

Waving a hand at one of the nearby alleys, Alex loaded in some of the mech deigns that Max had sent schematics over for, "Now, I didnt have the internal specs, for obvious reasons, so they are just full of random wiring and gears for effect... But, they will move realistically, and connect with the sim AI controller."

Max wandered up to the nearest mech, a towering rigid thing with four highly posable legs, built to take any level of shock and able to easily support the bulky frame on top, four pronged pincers on either side capable of smashing, tearing, building or repairing... Whatever the situation may require. "Hmm, looks good. Even got the scale right, I don't know if that was included."

"Some general notes, I also made use of footage we found from these sims in use. I have also been... Improvising what the other deisgns might be, based off the structure of these. They were very simple in design, for mass production."

"That they were. How accurate will this sim be?" Gacnign around, Max curiously looked for anythign else other than the mecchs, or the two of them.

"Oh, so-so. I can load in some NPCs of my own making, create strongholds and dropzones for supplies. Any form of aerial attack will shape the terrain accordingly, and I can save the modified sims between sessions... Should you find one that interests you."

Smirking, Max held his arms to the side, "Any chance you can outfit me then, to get started?"

Humming thoughtfully, Alex grinned, "I could. But what options... Newbie recruit, high ranking officer, or godmode infinite ammo?"

"Hah, I think I will go infinite ammo at first... Just to test out the sim. Maybe I can try from the beginning later, after you start writing up some scenarios."

"Got it." Waving a hand in Max's general direction, alex swapped out parts of his avatar with military body armor, and a waepon rack popped up next to him, "To keep things fair though, I'm only giving you standard issue rifles and sidearms. Oh, and shotguns, but I doubt you will actually get much use out of them."

Stolen novel; please report.

Pumped up at the thought of it, Max loaded up from the rack, slinging an automatic machine gun over his shoulder, some pistols at his waist, and staring with a sniper, "Ahh, feels like I'm in a game... I never did make use of these sims, back in the day."

"Oh? How did you get your hands on them, by the way? I never actually confirmed that."

Glancing up, Max blinked in surprise, "Didn't Jo tell you? I wrote them. Well, with Yuki's help at times... I spoke with her more then Ren."

Alex froze, taking in a lot at once, "Wait... You wrote them? The same one that actual soldiers used to prepare for battle, back during the Mars incident?"

"Yup. Was young at the time, fresh into university... And old enough to get enlisted. Thing is, I was terrified by the thought of actual combat... But I had a particular knack at writing video game AI."

Alex nodded, mind still whirring, "That... Makes sense. You are good with simulations, like me... And this would have helped. And... You knew Yuki?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Only in passing, most of the time. She knew things about the AI, helped us develop countermeasures. Also helped provide a dumber version for the sims we ran. Unfortunately, I don't have a copy any more. Shame she didn't make it out."

As alex went quiet, Max glanced over, "So, uh.... Can I get some cover, and start me some testing?"

Blinking, Alex shook it off, "Oh, yeah. Sure." Dismissing the display copies, Alex raised some simple concrete barricades, placing a button to replace them next to the weapon rack, "Now, you will still have to reload, but the ammo pouch will refill automatically. I will be observing from my White Room, so I can oversee the sim calmly. I'll stil be able to hear you just fine, though. Anything else?"

Shaking his head, Max gave the thumbs up as he got into position by one of the barricades. Fading off to take command of the sim, Alex started up their prototype Mars Replica, letting the simulation begin.

Jolana jumped when the simulation flickered to life over her projector, a mini-Alex sitting on the air next to it, "Sorry for the delay, just finished setting Max up."

"No worries. You handling the load okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. The AI directing the enemies is actually run off Greg's system, as a means of limiting it. Didn't want to overwhelm our guests, after all." Grinning up at her, alex floated around to 'watch' the sim as well, "The brunt of it is still handled through the shuttle, due to power limitations. Oh, and realism."

Giggling, Jolana nodded, "That sounds like a good way of splitting the load. Any progress on making the sims more efficient?"

"Ehh, so-so. On one hand, the actual calculations run a lot smoother now... But the actual memory it takes up and rendering of all the particles is just too huge. Downside of simluating down to the atom."

Swatting at the projection, Jolana laughed, "Then just simplify it, then. Even thousands of cubic micrometers would be unseeable to our eyes, but be much easier than an atom."

"Yeah, but... I like the more accurate data from the denser sample. I will consider it, though. Try it out a little." Glqncing back at the sim, Alex checked how Max was actually doing, "Well, the AI id reacting well."

Sniggering, Jolana nodded, "Max, not so much. He looked so much cooler before he started."

Giggling as well, Alex nodded, "Perhaps I should look into lower difficulties... For warm up purposes."