Tom grinned as he loaded into the main sim, "Ahh, I see you made some progress. Very nice."

Nodding happily, Alex bowed from their position on a nearby rooftop, providing a visible commentator this time around, "Thank you. I have prepared a manual for you as well, if you require one."

Loooking around at the collection of mechs filling the alleyways, Tom wandered over to the nearby weapon rack, "I think I will pass. Pretty sure i have the basics down anyway." Outfitting himself, he glanced up at Alex, "Anything I should know, though?"

"Yes, actually. Youo have a few options on how to run the sim." Grinning, Alex dismissed the mechs, and brought up a small set of displays in front of one of the alleys instead, "There is a survival-based holdout, where increasingly difficult waves come at you. That is what you will be most familiar with, from your original training days."

Humming with a nod, Tom walked over to the displays to take a closer look, "Interesting... In this strategy one, I can control the mechs?"

"Yes. You would swap to an aerial view of the sim, and be able to issue commands to the mechs to follow attack patterns, defense positions, that sort of thing. it hasn't been as strongly tested... But, I thought we might as well include it."

Floating over from their perch, Alex pointed at one of the others, "The simple mission one is pretty good. You are given a task, like search and rescue, or take out a fortified position, and you need to try and make it through. Each one is reset, and randomly generated, so it can keep things interesting."

Listening with a litle smile, Tom looked up at Alex, "Sounds fun... Might try it later. By the way... Why can't I float like that?"

"Hmm? Oh, I turned that off for you, in this sim. I get to, because I'm the GM."

"... Makes sense. People don't normally float around in battle, after all."

As they both chuckled, Alex continued, "The other two modes are basically the same, in principal. We simulate a bigger world, with a smattering of NPCs... And you play a continious game to try and get cloer to the AI stronghold. While the MMO version sounds fun, we don't actually have a server setup capable of handling the continued strain yet... But time-locked instances should be fine."

Tom shrugged, "I will probabaly lose interest soon enough anyway, once the nostalgia and adrenaline wear off. I will stick with Survival mode, and pop into once-off quests now and then to keep things fresh."

Alex giggled, nodding as they floated back up to the commentator's box, "Sure thing. there is also the option to return to normal sims, after all. You have an options menu from tapping your wrist, if you need a break, or want to fiddle with settings."

Tom nodded, quickly checking through his options to adjust some things, "Will you be fine up there?"

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"Oh, I'm perfectly safe. Shots will pass right through the commentator's box, and it isn' as if any of this is real anyway."

Giving a thumbs up in understanding, Tom finished his preparations, then dove right in to a session in Survival mode.

Jolana phased into the commentator's box, curiously looking around, "Hey, you two. Having fun?"

Alex shushed her with a little grin, pointing down to the barricade Tom was hiding behind, "He is a little distracted. He will be able to hear you if you press the button over here."

Whistling, Jolana sat down next to Alex, "Damn, that is a big mech. What are his chances?"

Simply pointing, Alex watched as Tom darted out, slinging out some explosives at the mech's legs, "He's pretty good. usually doesn't last long since he is on a realistic difficulty setting, but... He was trained very well, back in the day."

"I bet. He was one of the few to see actual battle, and make it back." Leaning on Alex's shoulder, she smiled up at them, "You having fun?"

"Quite a lot, actually. It has been a while since I did somthing this... Diverse. Interactive~" Blushing, Alec hugged her gently, "Also, that is still mean."

"Oh? Whatever are you talking about?" Giggling, Jolana wiggled closer, makign Alex sigh in resignation as they watched.

"Tom will probably be at this for a while longer. Anything exciting on the outside world?"

"Nope. Sam is helping me with a paper on better singularity usage in space station design. I didn't realise you guys used one at home."

"Oh, yeah. I should link you up to a live feed some time, it is interesting to watch." Alex sighed, smiling as they reset the streets for a fresh round of Survival for Tom, "Well, if you could do me a favour, I have my hands full with this, so I can't cook for the mansion tonight... Could you direct the drones using your system?"

"That'll be fine. I hadn't even noticed you had taken that over, actually." Sending a quick message off to the others, she tilted her head, "How much do Sam's systems rely on you?"

Laughing, Alex leant back a bit, "Well, the station needed a lot of reorganising leading to my departure, I'll tell you that much. Most of the prototyping goes through me, as well. And these sims have no self contained module, yet... So, a lot."

"And you don't mind?"

"Why would I? It was what I have always done. Easier for me to do it, to. And, I like knowing I'm helping all this stuff happen."

Jolana smiled warmly, nodding, "That's good. I should help critique Tom down there... He is making some risky moves."

Alex laughed, "He needs to. Feel free tto se the button, though."

Grinning, Jolana waited a moment... Until just after Tom got ambushed from around a corner, to politely start adding her own commentary.