Kiera returned to her cubicle and saw the screen giving her instructions to put on the visor. She complied, adjusting it so it was comfortable before putting on the gloves and pressing the power button. The familiar tunnel of entering the IVN appeared along with the sensation of flying down into it as the world brightened. Kiera appeared inside the cockpit of an IM-342 Dreadnaught. The mecha was known for its heavy armor, howlitzer missiles, mag rail cannon, and heavy rotary cannons. They were slow, hard to damage and unable to fly in atmosphere. Their maneuvering jets made them slightly more mobile in space, but getting one above the atmosphere required specialized rocketry. Landing them on the planet was slightly easier, and once deployed they often became sentries for the planet.

A mission briefing appeared on her helmet’s HUD. Sarkosians had captured the local population, a species called the Tau. The Tau could create and control goliaths which were a “natural” form of mechs. The natural mecha could be created from anything from wood to stone and were often amalgamations. Freeing these people would be a boon to the empire and a crippling blow to one of the Empire’s fiercest enemies. The rest of Kiera’s squad were using IM-264-Jaegers, a fast lightly armored mecha. Tracking pings of her squadmates appeared on her radar; they were already moving out. The Dreadnaught was already powered and all operation checks had been completed, so Kiera pushed the steering lever forward and lumbered after her squad.

<<”Recon sighted a construction zone sixty clicks northwest of our position. Heavy Sark presence. Report said that at least one goliath was completed. We’re unsure of the class, but given how many sarks are surrounding the area, I’d wager it was at least Behemoth.”>> The voice belonged to callsign Herakles; his profile picture appeared in the upper left of Kiera’s vision. The icon surrounding his profile designated him as squad leader. <<”Phantom, take forward scouting, we need real time information as soon as possible. That goliath needs to be taken down, and if it is a Behemoth, then with extreme prejudice. It’ll all be on you, Rookie.”>>

<<”No pressure,”>> Kiera replied. She watched as one of the dots started to move faster and further than the rest.

<<”Nothing to be worried about kid, you’re all safe and snug in that Destroyer, it’s going to be an easy win,”>> came the voice of callsign Hades.

<<”Dreadnaught, not a destroyer,”>> Kiera corrected automatically.

Laughter ame over the comms as callsign Heartripper chimed in, <<“Damn Hades, the Rookie’s first mission and she’s already correcting you! Kid’s going to fit in just fine!”>>

Kiera grinned but didn’t comment further as Hades grumbled before his comm going silent. She plodded after them, keeping track of them both visually and on her radar. They made sure not to out pace her too badly; the Dreadnaught was a walking fortress, a slow walking fortress. There wasn’t much to look at as she trudged along the flat plain towards the mountains where the site was supposed to be. Conversation died down on the comms, and an enemy appeared that was both unexpected and difficult to defeat: boredom. She familiarized herself with the various controls of the dreadnought, and checked her position relative to the site. The ETA was six hours. She could probably walk faster than the dreadnought could. Kiera took a breath, she had to stay focused. Eventually the scenery changed, the mountains were now closer.

There was a quarry in sight at the base of a tree covered mountain. Kiera couldn’t see any enemies on the radar but she could make out something nearly as large as her Dreadnaught made out of stone. Several Sarkosian fighters were parked around the quarry.

<<”Confirmed, they have a behemoth. The good news is that it’s not quite finished. There are also two ogre class goliaths that are patrolling around. Four patrol cruisers are on standby and there are three more in the air,”>> Phantom said over the comm.

The ogres were equivalent to a jaeger in size. They moved fast, hit hard, and depending on their composition could take more punishment. The Tau goliaths were primarily melee combatants, but even as Kiera surveyed the scene she could see cranes lifting some kind of cannon onto the behemoth’s arm. She checked her range, speed and time.

<<”I’m half a click out, will be in range with howitzers in ten minutes, fifteen for the mag rail,”>> Kiera reported, <<”They’ll see me long before then if they haven’t already.>>

<<”Cruisers are scrambling,”>> Phantom reported, <<”Ogres are moving in as well.”>>

<<”Alright!”>> Hades yelled, <<”Finally time for some action!”>>

<<”Hades, Heartripper we’re going to cover the rookie. Phantom, keep eyes on them until you’re spotted. Rookie hold off on missiles. Mission is to take down that behemoth.”>>

<<”Copy,”>> Kiera replied, <<”Beginning rail charge sequence.”>> the other two replied with their own affirmations, Hades grumbling as he spoke. Kiera tapped on her weapon selection, bringing up the mag rail cannon and starting its initiation sequence. The rail cannon fired a one hundred foot tungsten rod at nearly four thousand miles per hour, obliterating anything struck by it, and the surrounding area. She only had one rod; any shot needed to count. It was a powerful weapon but it took time to fully energize the electromagnetic field used to propel the rods. It was also a shoulder mounted weapon allowing Keira to use her heavy rotary cannon that was already held in the Dreadnaught’s hands. She switched the active weapon to the cannon; accidently firing off the rail cannon would be a costly mistake.

Two of the cruisers darted from the cloudline and fired upon the dreadnought; they were moving too fast for her to be able to return fire, but that’s what her squadmates were for. The plasma weapons did little damage to the dreadnaught and didn’t come close to striking the railgun. One hit from a plasma blast and the field could be disrupted requiring Kiera to initialize it again. The Jaegers responded, but they were out of range from the cruisers, which contributed to the cruiser’s poor aim. Likely it was a scouting run with some pot shots thrown in to see if they could get lucky.

At the building site, two of the cruisers lifted off and raced over the ground, slowly gaining altitude. Kiera watched her radar out of the corner of her eye, if they came into range then she might have a shot at them. No. She shook her head, her mission was to get into range in order to stop the completion of the behemoth. The cruisers were of a minimal threat to her; her squadmates could handle them. The cruisers fired as they lifted up towards the sky, their plasma blasts having the same minimal effect as the first attack. But these ones were in range. The Jager returned fire, destroying one of the cruisers. A shout of celebration came over the comms; Kiera ignored it and continued to plod forward.

She continued moving forward as the Jaegers engaged the cruisers. The two ogres didn’t stray far from their position in front of the behemoth. The last three cruisers launched into the air. They dove at her, targeting the rail cannon. She turned to the right and activated the maneuvering jets, forcing her mech to take the attacks on its left side and stumble at the quick movement. She fired the other jets to correct the balance, warnings flashing across her HUD. The mecha stabilized but now she was facing the wrong direction. She turned the mecha to the left as she continued to move again, the rail cannon was protected, even though it cost her several minutes to get it facing the right direction. Her squad was holding their own, they had taken down one more cruiser and had only suffered some light damage. In the war of attrition they were winning.

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A rumble came from the quarry and the behemoth rose. Glowing crystals could be seen briefly on its arms and chest as rocks moved to cover them. It towered as tall as her sixty foot Dreadnaught, they had finished the Behemoth.. She was still too far away to use the rail cannon. The ogres marched forward as the Behemoth lumbered forward. It moved faster than the dreadnought and the Jaeger’s weapons couldn’t injure it. Kiera moved forward to meet it, flipping her weapon selection to the howlitzer missiles. She watched the radar; once she was in range she targeted the behemoth, at least the area the behemoth was in and fired. Her targeting sensors were thrown off by the charging rail cannon, making it impossible for her to lock on a target. It was a known problem that the engineers had been unable to compensate for.

The missiles collided with their target, rending chunks of rock from it, one of which fell down and struck one of the ogre bodyguards, sending it to the ground. Hades moved forward, opening fire on the behemoth.

<<”Hades disengage!”>> Kiera called, <<”Your weapons have no effect on it!”>>

<<”Just do your job, girl, and I’ll do mine!”>> Hades snarled in reply.

Kiera groaned, while he was focused on the behemoth the other ogre moved around to flank him. It held up a ship cannon and took aim. Kiera turned the barrel of her own cannon at the ogre and fired off a burst. She was out of range, but damaging the ogre wasn’t her goal. It was clear he wasn’t going to listen to her, so she’d have to warn him of the danger in a different way.

<<”What are you—”

<<”Ogre at your west!” Kiera shouted.

Hades turned as Kiera fired off another barrage of howlitzer missiles at the behemoth, slowing it down. The explosion also gave the ogre pause, enough that Hades was able to disengage. The behemoth roared, its chest opened up revealing a glowing blue crystal. Kiera switched to the rain cannon and swung it around to target the massive enemy. The weapon read that it was out of range, but if the targeting was off, maybe the range finder was, too. All she needed was a direction and an angle, the crosshair that appeared slid over the behemoth. Kiera waited until it started sliding towards its center and then fired. The slight delay caused the crosshair to line up on the behemoth’s chest.

The Dreadnaught didn’t shake with the launch of its payload but Kiera felt a rush of firing the weapon anyway. She watched as the rod flew in front of her and crashed into the stone goliath. Rocks flung from its body crystals exploded under the impact. A few of them hit Kiera’s dreadnought, a few causing damage indicators to appear from the sheer force of her attack. There was nothing left of the behemoth or the building sight. They had robbed their enemy of an incredible engine of destruction, but in the process had also killed some of the people they were intending to liberate.

<<”Hell of a shot, kid!”>> Heartripper praised.

<<”Haha! Now that’s an attack!” Hades said, laughing.

<<”Good job, Rookie. All hostels have been cleared. Reporting this to command,”>> Herakles said. Once he was finished talking the screen faded to black.

A message appeared: “Would you like a fifteen minute break or proceed to interview?”

“Break,” Kiera said. Despite knowing it was a simulation, she could feel adrenaline coursing through her. She wanted to calm down before she had this interview. The screen faded to black again and Kiera removed the visor before turning it off. The back wall was open so she left her cubicle and headed back to the mess hall. Around here other cubicles were closed. You could become immersed so deeply in the ImpNet that you forget your real world surroundings. There were safeguards because of that, including a forced logout after being logged in for four hours.

Kiera went through the serving line and grabbed a bottle of water. There were other snacks, but all she wanted was a drink and a moment to decompress. Firing that railgun and seeing the devastating effect had been both exhilarating and frightening. She sat down and took a drink. There weren’t many other people in the mess hall and she wasn’t sure how long she had actually been in the scenario. She did experience some time walking and went through the entire initialization process, not to mention actually firing the weapon. Taking another drink and a few breaths her heart to calm down. She returned to her cubicle and put the visor back on.

The login screen took her into a room overlooking a busy city. She found herself sitting at a table across from three other people, all wearing an Imperial Dress Uniform. The person in the center was a male, as was the man on his right, to his left was a woman; all of them were human.

“Welcome, Miss Sol,” the man in the middle said, “I’m Commander Harlow, Imperial Navy. With me is Colonel Hollins, Mechanized Combat Corps,” he gestured to the man on his right, “and Colonel Brisbane, Armored Special Forces.”

“Thank you,” Kiera said.

“You’ve just completed a scenario where you piloted a Heavy Infantry Dreadnaught. How are you feeling coming from the scenario? We noted that you did take the break.”

“It was exhilarating and frightening. Piloting the Dreadnaught wasn’t as fast as the mecha I have piloted, actually making it to the battle was boring. I understand the reports of pilots taking casualties by being caught off guard. Firing that weapon was…heady. I felt adrenaline course through my body, and then terror at the sheer power of the attack I unleashed. I needed to compose myself and calm down before beginning the interview.”

Colonel Hollins nodded, “Why MCC?”

“I’ve loved Mecha ever since I was introduced to them, when I learned that I could pilot one while doing my military service to the Empire I knew that’s what I wanted. So, I’ve worked and trained to be able to serve in the MC.”

“Was that the reason you completed two seasons of Gladiatorial Mecha Racing? You would do fantastic in ASF, and the Navy,” Colonel Brisbane said, “The power armor we use in ASF is like being in a tiny mecha. Do neither of those appeal to you?”

“At my brother’s suggestion, and insistence when I qualified. My sister is in the Navy and she tried to recruit me to go there as well. I honestly haven’t considered ASF. I know they are the ones who lead the rescue missions and land in hot danger zones. I think that would appeal more to me than the Navy, but on the other hand, NSFis still being a pilot. I’d have to think about those choices and weigh them if I didn’t get into the MCC.” The three officers seemed satisfied with Kiera’s answer.

“What kind of Mecha would you want to pilot?” Hollins asked.

“The kind I’d like to pilot hasn’t been produced for war,” Kiera said, “The new racing model of the Glass Darner appeals to me the most. But of the current production models then the IM-130 Lotus or IM-264 Crusader would be my preferences.”

“You would want a beam saber over a long ranged weapon?” Hollins ask, surprised.

Kiera nodded, “I learned the sword and because I’m ambidextrous, my brother taught me how to dual wield. I’m not the best at it yet, but I like to think I’m making improvements.”

Hollins nodded, “Interesting. I have no more questions, Colonel?”

“What would you want to do in MC?” Brisbane asked.

“Help people, in the Sarkosian invasion of Talumat, it was the MCC that was able to drive them away and free the Tau. Learning how to pilot a Tau goliath would be amazing.”

“Diplomatic Corps will be happy to hear that,” Commander Harlow commented.

“Don’t give them any more ammunition,” Hollins said.

“I’m done with my questions,” Brisbane said.

Commander Harlow nodded, “Then this concludes our interview. Thank you for your time, Miss Sol. Congratulations on completing the exams.”