It doesn’t take me long to clean up the sims when I get to it. Thanks to my time at the academy, I have more than enough experience scrubbing down the machines after particularly intense sessions, and with only three to scrub down, it doesn’t take long before I am finished.

Checking the time, I head over to breakfast, making the relatively short trip over to the mess hall. Once there, I grab myself an out-of-the-way table and quickly make my way through a light meal featuring a chicken sandwich with bacon. All artificial meat, of course. The only time I ever had proper meat was at one of the academy’s functions. It was an interesting taste, but it didn’t seem too much different from the artificial stuff, despite what some of the other students seemed to assert.

As I finish up, I wander the ship for a while. I first attempt to head back over to the sims to see if I can get some more practice in. However, as I arrive, I see two of the other squads have already taken up residence in the room. Not wanting to interrupt, I start to wander through the halls of the ship with no real destination in my head, but eventually, my wandering legs take me over to the mech bay.

I don’t even realize that fact until I hear the commotion. The hum of machinery, the crackle of sparks, and the shouts of mechanics. A chaotic cacophony of production and repair. Peering into the bay, I see crewmen rushing around, handling all sorts of tasks. However, they are all overshadowed by the Astral Gears.

Looking across the bay, there are a total of ten machines. Most of them are Janissaries, though there are also four Ashigaru, almost tucked away in the corner. However, my eyes don’t linger over the Ashigaru for long. Instead, my gaze focuses on the Janissaries. After all, I have seen Ashigarus before, even having the chance to pilot training models while I was at the academy, but I have only ever had the opportunity to see Janissaries in the simulator.

Looking up at the Janissaries, I feel a strange sense of awe. While it is only a bit taller than the Ashigaru, that slight extra height adds to its sense of power. Along with that, the horns on the head, most having only two to the side, though there are 2 with an additional forehead horn, add to that design. Away from the head and looking over the body, one of the clearest differences between the Janissary and its predecessor is immediately apparent. The heavier armor of the Janissaries, from the basic armor that covers the entire frame to the shields mounted at the shoulders that grant extra protection to the upper arms.

Comparing the Ashigaru and the Janissaries off pure looks alone, the Ashigaru feels deadlier. However, even under the hood, the specs are more impressive. Additional thrusters in the leg which allow for higher speeds in space. While still not fast enough to rival the speed achievable by Martian jets unassisted, they are fast enough to successfully engage with them in combat. Also, they possess a more advanced sensor suite, allowing for further detection/ engagement range. Finally, to top it all off, a stronger battery grants it a longer engagement time.

“Hey, you got a purpose for standing in the door like that?” A sharp voice takes me out of my observation, and I look over to see a dark-skinned and muscular woman glaring over at me, a crate held in her arms.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I say quickly, stepping out of the way.

“Thanks, but as I said, do you have a reason for being over here? I can tell that you are a pilot, but you all aren’t scheduled to be over here for another couple of hours.

“Oh no, I just wanted to find something to do, and I ended up over here. If you need any help, I would be glad to lend a hand.”

“Carry this then,” she says, handing the crate over.

I take it carefully, surprised at its weight and how easily she carried it. She looks over at me for a few seconds before nodding and turning, motioning for me to follow as she does so. Following her, I am led into the heart of the chaos that is the mech bay. After walking for a minute, though with the weight it feels longer, we stop at a roughly set up workstation with computers surrounded by several boxes and scattered tools.

“You can just place it down and then be off. I don’t need you standing around underfoot.”

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“Are you sure there isn’t anything else I can help you with? I don’t have to do for the until we are scheduled to be here.”

“Are you sure you can help out? You looked like you were struggling with that crate I just gave you.”

“I will try my best,” I say, shaking my arms out.

“....Fine enough. But you don’t go anywhere. I don’t need you slipping into something you ain’t supposed to and ruining things. And I don’t want any of your pilot friends thinking they can just roam freely on my turf.”

“Your turf?”

“Yeah, My turf,” she says before a flash of understanding flies across her face. “Oh, right, introductions. I’m Nasreen, and I am in charge of this mech bay.”

“Oh, Ensign James Kizarashi,” I say quickly, saluting only to have her waving away.

“It’s fine. I don’t need any of that. It’s a waste of time, honestly. The only thing that matters is that whenever I tell you not to do something, you listen. Other than that, the rank doesn’t mean much of anything. As for you helping out, I can put you to work, but you are only gonna be doing what I say to do. Got it?”

“Yes, Ma’am,”

“None of that,” she says, shuddering. “Makes me feel old. Just say understood or something else.”

“Understood,”

“Now….”

Silence sits between us for a few minutes as she taps away at a keyboard in front of her. After a while, she looks up from the keyboard and starts writing something down on a piece of paper.

“Alright, run this down over to Kyles. He’ll be the big guy shouting at people over by the Ashigarus,” she says, handing the slip over to me.

Nodding, I rush across the bay and over to the Ashigaru. Looking over them, compared to the shiny, pristine armor and fresh coats of paint of the Janissaries, the Ashigarus look more worn. Their armor shows signs of damage, and in certain spots, their paint is chipped and worn. As I look over their armor, I also notice that their usual shoulder-mounted shield is missing. In addition, their heads are different from that of normal Ashigaru. Instead of the normal sort of helmet shape, they all have what looks to be a visor on their forehead that looks like it can slide down over their sensor.

“Come on, Boys! Let’s get this shit done so we can get to lunch!” A loud shout followed by groans directs me over to a group of crewmen. As the group disperses, I see a large man with a scowl on his face as he watches the others move to work on one of the Ashigaru.

“Umm, excuse me? Would you happen to be a Mr. Kyles?”

“Yes, that would be me,” he says, glancing down at me.

“I was given this by Bay Officer Nasreen to hand to you.”

With that, I hand the paper over to him. He looks over the paper for a couple of seconds, his eyes narrowing for a second before he starts to nod his head.

“Ok. Thanks for delivering this. Tell the boss that I will get right on this.”

“Will do.”

“Oh, and can you tell her that the adjustments for Unit 2’s sensors should be done before the pilots come in.”

“Will do.”

“Thanks.”

With that, I cross the bay once again over to Nasreen.

“Thanks for that,” she replies, glancing up from her work for a second.

“It’s my pleasure. Also, he told me to tell you that the adjustments for Unit 2’s sensors should be done before the pilots come in.”

“Good. Been waiting a minute on those. No offense, but those Ashigaru have put in more work than any of your Janissaries probably will.”

“Are those Ashigaru special for some reason?”

“Right, Academy grad,” she says after blinking for a second. “Those are a relatively new machine, which came out a bit after the Janissary, though it’s more accurate to call them the result of a mod kit that was released for the Ashigaru. They are officially the UCC-AG-05-S, the S standing for sniper. They are modified to have speed compared to the base Janissary and are primarily equipped to wield the M1-Sniper Rifle, also known as the Arquebus.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, and currently, those are used by the most useful pilots on this entire ship. While that might change, I don’t see that happening anytime soon if you follow in the footsteps of what we have been having with our Ashigaru pilots. “

“Oh, have they been doing something wrong?”

“I won’t say they have been doing anything wrong per say, just not doing much right. Let me put it this way. The Ashigaru pilots give me less work to do. As much as I like working on these machines, I hate having to do extra work. If you don’t give me much extra work to do, you all will be golden.”

“Understood. I will do my best not to give you too much work.”

“Keep up that attitude,” she says with a chuckle. “Now for your next task…”