D
Dumont
>188604, BVC Offices "The Hexagon".
Alex had been on hold for approximately 47 minutes now. Curiously, calling the offices of the strange corporation calling itself BVC led to an ear-splitting blast of Nepleslian Symphonic Hyper-Death Metal band "UltraGore Killing Fields of Stars" played on a loop. Intermittently cut between a pleasant operator's voice telling the caller that they were very important and their business was held dear by BVC. Without calling ahead, Alex had been informed, he would not be allowed past the lobby... It was a nice lobby, to be sure. The polished floors and tasteful sculpture of a gold woman holding a planetary body before her were pleasant to look at, but there was nowhere to sit, and the man at the security check-in was just staring at the young pilot out of boredom.
Finally, perhaps mercifully, the tone cut out. A soft voice on the other end picking up with an almost imperceptible sigh. Alex would be able to put the voice to the Personal Assistant he'd met on the beach some days earlier: Lili.
"Offices of Ms. Van Banning; to whom am I speaking?"
"This is Alex, I was given the contact information for this place a couple days ago." Alex thought that he might look a little weird talking out loud with no visible headset or communications device. "I was wondering if there were any oppertunities to do some work here. I don't really have much else to do at the moment."
From the other end, Alex could hear the tapping and popping noise of feedback on a volumetric keyboard. Details were being taken, apparently.
"Is this Alex Bendram, Alexi Etrostantsia, or Alex Dustrin?" Lili asked, "and I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific about your area of operations; 'here' is not very specific, I'm sorry."
"Err... Well, I don't really... have a last name." Alex said, slightly embarassed by the admission. "I think you met me a couple of days ago on the beach. As for where 'here' is, I don't think I can leave the planet without permission."
There was a moment of silence on the other end, followed by some feverish typing.
"I see. So I'm guessing 'here' implies that you are located near our western frontier office..." Lili said. "In what department are you applying for employment?"
"Near the giant hexagon from space, yes." Alex said. "As for what department, I don't really know. Where ever you need help I guess,"
A bit more typing, and the sound of a headset being wrenched away for a second on Lili's end... Some small voices ringing around in the background. Eventualy there was a slight clacking on the other end.
"You're... Look, you're not giving me much to work with here. Do you have any notable skills?" Lili asked. "There's nothing on the forms for people with no last name, and no background, with no specific interest. We mainly seek to hire experts... Do you have any field of expertise? If not, I can forward you to human resources and see about recommending you for maintenance."
Alex paused for a moment, considering on whether or not to explain. Deciding to take the chance, he explained how he seemed to be able to connect with his mecha and other machines.
Lili on the other end gave a little sigh of relief.
"Alright... I'll flag you for inspection by our security division." She said, audibly inputting far more data than Alex had actually given, "And a little advice? You should lead with your skills rather than just asking nonspecifically about work... You need to make us want to hire you. M'kay?"
A few more key presses, and a final chirp of something being sent.
"Mr. Daniels should be down in a few minutes to take you up to security to put you through an aptitude simulation."
Satisfied, and thankful that he hadn't messed anything up, Alex sat down to wait. I wonder what she meant by aptitude simulation. He thought to himself.
After Lili hung up on her end, and resumed working; it would take about another half hour for the one called Mister Daniels to appear in the lobby. The sun had risen high into the noon hour, eliminating all shadows in the lobby, but the air conditioning kept it nice and cool inside. Mr. Daniels appeared from an elevator bank behind the front desk, and stepped out. He was an older man, probably in his early forties. Whip-thin with neatly cropped black hair tinged with grey, wearing a neat three-piece suit minus the jacket, and elaborate cuban-heeled dress boots. Something about him looked a little stuck up, but none the less he crossed the lobby in a few loud steps and extended a hand to Alex, friendly smile on his face.
"You're Alex, right? One name, like Aldane, the pop star?"
Taking the hand, Alex gave it a quick, firm shake. Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly motion he said, "Well, the thing is, I don't really remember it."
Daniels could only give a little grin in return, squeezing Alex's hand in a moderate show of force. It was pretty clear Alex was the stronger of the two from the get-go.
"We-ell. That happens. I once forgot how my hands worked for nine months. It'll come back to you." Taking back his own hand, Daniels stuck it in his pocket and started walking back to the elevator, stopping only for a second to scan a thumb-print to sign Alex in to the building. "I'll be taking you up and testing you against Jolie. She's our resident pilot ace for security in the Enclave... It'll all be simulated, so don't be afraid to give her a good wallop, eh?"
Alex began to worry. He had no combat experience that he could remember aside from the disaster on the Necromancer, and he would be going up against someone who was the best of the best. All he could do was hope that things would come to him as they had in the past.
As Alex started to fret, he was led back to the elevator banks, ushered inside. The way up felt almost like the ride took hours, though it only took a few seconds all in all. Maybe it was that there was more UltraGore Killing Fields of Stars (Evil is Anointed Single Track) playing instead of the usual muzak piped in to an elevator. Always just a little too loud to be pleasant to the ear. As the elevator gave a obligatory sigh of satisfaction at a job well done, Alex was pushed out gently by Mr. Daniels... Almost crashing into someone standing just millimeters away from the elevator doors, resulting in him being gently pushed forward, then almost violently pulled backwards.
"Ah... Pardon, Alex. This is Jolie." Daniels said, indicating the young woman he'd almost been smashed into. She was middlingly tall, with perfectly straight black hair cropped to jaw length, and pulled back in a ponytail. Glassy grey eyes, and thin enough features to give her an almost hatchet-like quality to her face. Wearing a tight black piloting suit, underneath a mid-thigh length zippered hoodie emblazoned with some corporate insignia that meant nothing to Alex. She seemed... Severe, looking over Alex with no clear indication of whether she was registering him positively or negatively. Like a shark with a poker face.
Deciding that he had nothing to lose, Alex held a hand out in greeting and introduced himself. "Hello..."
Jolie very slowly looked down to Alex's hand, holding her stare for a second, before looking to Mr. Daniels. A weird cold moment passed before Daniels nodded and said something like 'go on'... At which point Jolie raised her arm, and very geeently took Alex's extended hand by the fingers. Giving it a turn sideways, she bent down a little and kissed him on the back of the hand.
Another akward beat.
"Um... No. You shake." Mr. Daniels explained, righting Jolie to a standing position, and physically manipulating Alex and Jolie's hands to display the proper motion for a handshake. Jolie just making a little noise in her throat to indicate understanding.
Unsure of what to do in response to Jolie's strange actions, Alex decided to move forward as if nothing has happened. "Anyways, I'm told you're a great pilot. I think that they want me to compete with you in a simulation."
Hand still extended forward, not dropping from where she'd held Alex's, Jolie looked to Daniels for confirmation. The man himself just unwrapped a lemon candy from his pocket and popped it into his mouth, biting through it in an audible crunch. He gave Jolie a nod of confirmation, causing her to move slightly to look Alex in the eye. And for an uncomfortable second Alex would feel like he was being somehow read like a book... By some sort of walking corpse; there was little life in her eyes.
"I look forward to breaking you." She said in a small voice, barely breaking a whisper.
Startled by the statement, Alex looked at Daniels for an explanation of some sort.
Daniels' answer wasn't exactly in the form Alex might expect. The form it came in actually turned out to be candy, as Daniels produced another sherbet lemon from the pocket of his waistcoat and handed it to Alex, before enthusiastically clapping his hands. "Well! Jolly good, let's take this to the simulation room by engineering, shall we?"
Without much explanation, Alex found himself being whisked down a hallway, through some sort of hangar where several mecha stood covered from head to toe in white tarps marked with the words 'ALL FRAMES MUST REMAIN STOWED FOR TRANSIT'. He'd faintly be able to recognise the mechanic from the beach working on a massive servo-mount, but a firm hand on his shoulder from Daniels guided him into a small room off the hangar, where dozens of toolboxes and workbenches were neatly stowed still. The only thing that wasn't still stowed from the orbital drop was a table in the middle of the room, with some sort of computer sitting on it. Two headsets resting beside it.
"So. We'll fit these to your mindware, and you should have specs for your machine still in there to render it in simulation. Then we'll run you through a couple of tests, and see if you're what we need in this company. Sound good?"
Nodding an affirmative, Alex slipped the headset on. The dialouge with the machine was much like that of his mecha. Soon, he found himself floating, unmoving, in a void full of light. Concentrating, Alex summoned his craft into existance. Feeling the familiar controls, Alex, linked with his craft. Looking around for Jolie he saw a simulated projection of a city. Most of it in rather low polygon white blocks, making it obviously fake. None the less there was just about everything one would expect in an urban combat simulation, right down to a 'civilian casualties' counter on his HUD. While the 'civilians' in question were little more than computer programs, they represented lives that needed to be preserved, even at the cost of him losing.
Alex would feel a hand on his shoulder sitting down his real body in meatspace, as his HUD would ping a detected enemy machine roughly four blocks away. No visual contact. He could see the little 'civilians' in the form of little cubes scurrying around in buildings. It was all a little cute actually.
"So. We can do you in a straight versus scenario, or put you through a team drill. Do you have any preferences, Alex?" Daniels' voice came through the VR, somehow ringing inside Alex's head.
Considering the question for a moment, Alex responded, "I'm not sure. Whatever suits you I guess."
"Alright, we'll see what you've got in a straight fight..." Daniels could be heard punching in a few commands. A few things blinked into Alex's HUD, then disappeared again as Daniels double-checked that options like orbital strike support, and simulated ground engineering crews were all off.
"Okay. Are you two ready?" Daniels asked.
"I am." The little hushed voice of Jolie could be barely heard. "I doubt he is."
Feeling a little insulted, Alex snappily replied, "I'm ready if you are."
"And... Go." Daniels said firmly, releasing full control to Alex and Jolie. His HUD would show a ping of his opponent moving about a few blocks away, but not with a direct approach... She was circling him for now.
Pulling out his medium plasma cannon, Alex boosted up and away from the city, trying to prevent any civilians from being hurt when he began to take fire. Alex began to look around for Jolie, trying to figure out what type of craft she was piloting.
Alex's scanners would pick up a few different pings. Bringing up an image of a tall machine painted white, with long thin limbs. It looked like it was built for speed moreso than endurance or sheer firepower, although the internal database on the simulated mech could only bring up 'type unknown'. As he rose up to the sky, Jolie piloted around at ground level more, launching around at speed to always keep cover between Alex and herself. No clear shots without potential for civilian casualty. By the looks of things she was detecting him as much as he was her.
A little image of his opponent came up in Alex's HUD on the simulator, Jolie just staring him in the eye. "You're not controlling a fighter, or a gunship you know? You're a sitting duck up there."
Focusing on the task at hand, Alex activated his EW suite and focused Its emitters. In order to overload Jolie's sensors, temporarily blind them and force a short shutdown. Having done that he dove into a cloud bank, and began to examine his options. Firing like this wasn't an option, because he might hurt civilians. He needed a new plan of attack.
The little image of Jolie in the corner of Alex's HUD cracked open into something that looked like a smile, giving off a surprisingly natural and girlish laugh for something with an expression like a preying mantis.
"Should have been your first move." She said, in that little whisper caught in a throat as Alex's sensors were hit with a sudden wave of interference, drowning out any sensory data he himself was getting. Both of them were flying blind as far as targetting was going now... "I'll wait down here for you. I already have everything I needed from my sensors anyway."
Alex began to get nervous. This pilot was in a whole other class. Thankfully, he had one advantage; his connection with his mecha would make it a lot easier to control, and he ought to be able to react quicker too.
Grimacing, Alex knew that long range combat wasn't an option anymore. Pulling out his light pulsed plasma cannon in one hand and one of his plasma pistol saber, Alex dove through the cloud layer, pulling up at the last moment and relying on his instincts to warn him. Unbeknownst to him, the Silhouette/Mirror system activated, creating a short-lived AI based directly off of of his mental structure and increasing his reaction time up to 400% of its already impressive base.
As Alex came back down to ground level, his sensors remained jammed. He could get a decent rough idea of where Jolie and her machine were, at the very least... At least until the last moment before landing. At ground level, the interference seemed to have split, his HUD painting no less than four seperate locations where her counter-ECM was in effect. And those four sources were closing in on him, moving around in cover...
"So you see, I'm moving around preventing visual contact. Yes? It's a shame you're falling for all this, you know?" The little HUD image kept up its quiet chatter, soft and soothing. "But I admire your bravery coming down to meet me head on, even though you know I'm better than you are. It's a shame I have to hurt you, even though it's only make believe."
Ignoring the jamming, Alex altered his hud to show mass signatures instead of energy and radar, instructing the computers to ignore any mass signatures smaller than half his mass and bigger that twice his mass. He then cross referenced these with energy signatures large enough to be a power plant for a mecha.
Narrowing down the band of his scans, Alex finds that the environment has about four dozen different objects of roughly that amount of mass. Things like large trucks in the streets, smaller buildings. He was getting closer. Cross-referencing to energy signiatures cut it down to about eleven potential locations. The prevalence of aether reactors used to power vehicles making it a bit more difficult. Closer still...
All this didn't quite help as with all this sensor jamming still in effect, an explosion rocked against Alex's shields, not quite managing to do more than superficial damage. Inaccurate missile fire starting to crash down around him from above. She must have had a bead on him somehow, but didn't seem to be able to target him with precision. She just seemed to be bombing the entire street he was in!
Moving to protect the civilians and infrastructure, Alex activated his point defense laser to shoot the missiles down and trusted the targeting computer to do its job while he focused on more important things. Tracking the source of the missiles, he flew upward to get a better vantage point. Once again, he narrowed the search parameters even more, adding a filter to show only sources that were emitting jamming or shield signatures.
With jamming still in effect, Alex finds that his targetting computer is mostly rendered useless in regards to the pinpoint targetting needed to intercept missiles. The missiles crashing along the street... Strangely, his little counter of civilian casualties doesn't go up. There just didn't seem to be anyone in that street. Or maybe it was only counting casualties caused by Alex? It was hard to tell.
"Why are you flying up...?" A little whisper came over his comms, as everything around him burst in a flash of blinding light. Four thermo-nuclear Streaker rockets bursting around his now exposed mech. Still unable to get through his own jamming to target precisely, the shots seemed to be relying more upon area denial moreso than anything... Still, his flying upwards meant he was vulnerable... And he could see these four shots were fired from below.
Alex finds himself streaking downwards, several tears in his armor, and soaring downwards; knocked out of stable flight as his sensors narrow down to an approximate final location about three blocks away.
"Don't fly out of cover unless you're going to more cover." Jolie's voice drifted into his cockpit. "I clearly had a bead on you when I shot the first salvo... Don't go out into the open when you know I have a shot, okay?"
Pulling himself out of the dive, Alex switched his plasma pistol into sword mode and began to approach the location that he had determined. Close combat is my only chance. I need to get her before she slips away, he thought. He took up a stance that would allow him to fight in close combat easily but also make accurate shots with his plasma cannon.
Launching himself directly at his opponent, Alex gets perhaps his first good look at her machine. An almost skeletal, but still quite heavy seeming medium-machine. It looked positively lethal somehow, or maybe it was just how Jolie gave that sharkish smile in his HUD as he approached.
"Getting close, then?" She said, her machine taking up a fighting stance and grasping at the hilt of a heavy mechanical hilt mounted at the small of its back, underneath a couple of empty racks. With a quick pull of the weapon, and an upward slash to a nearby building, Alex found the facade of a block of condos starting to topple down toward him, obscuring the area between them with dust and tumbling rubble.
Switching his visuals to thermal, Alex dove through the smoke to find Jolie's machine having not moved anywhere but forward, already bringing its sword down towards His mech. The Silhouette/Mirror's assistance allowed him to dodge out of the way, dropping his gun with one hand and grabbing the arm of Jolie's machine with it, twisting and maneuvering himself to be in a hold position, his mecha holding Jolie's down on the ground with his saber poised to strike.
As Alex pulled in to extreme close range, he found himself poised in a very good position over Jolie. But a little warning on his HUD read 'Warning! Shield integrity compromised!' Followed by another warning reading 'Warning! Severe Damage to Rear Armor!' Nothing on his sensors, but they'd been jammed for a while now. Abruptly Alex felt four heavy impacts, toppling him off the top of Jolie's mech and sending him sprawling a little bit away. Jolie popping back up.
"Support drones." Jolie said, as Alex spotted one of the four custom job OI Kirin Feathers zipping around. Three more were embedded into Alex's machine's back. "We can continue if you want, but I think this is okay for round one."
"Fine with me" Alex said, mentally exhausted, before returning to his physical body.
There was a slight jarring sensation as Alex's eyes refocused on the room around him. It wasn't just him and the other two anymore, about six more people in flight suits were sitting around, staring at the wall mounted screen which seemed to be showing a picture-in-picture of both pilots' viewpoints. Some seemed mad, others were chatting. Two more of them were just staring with the same glassy-eyed expression as Jolie. One of them was exchanging money, while others were complaining about their bets.
Jolie sat across the table, moving the headset she wore to the table, then returning her hands to her lap.
"Opinions?" Daniels asked, holding up a datapad where he'd clearly been taking notes.
"He has talent, but clearly has no operational knowledge or training." Jolie explained. "He didn't contact the local authorities to call for an evacuation in the combat zone as he should have. He didn't identify the support drones. He left cover too many times, leaving him vulnerable to area denial attacks. He didn't think to jam communications. He got me in a lock, but had he just fired that cannon at me instead of moving in to do that, I'd have been on the back foot."
Daniels nodded, taking notes. Then taking some money from the pilot who seemed to have been acting as bookie.
"Alright, we'll have to run him through a couple more simulations before final evaluation." Daniels dropped his datapad on the table. "You need a drink of water, or something? Or are you good to go?"
Disheartened after hearing his performance dissected mercilessly, Alex just shook his head. "I'm fine" He said.
"Good work ethic, I like it." Daniels said, clapping Alex warmly on the shoulder, before bringing a few more of the pilots around to plug in for a team exercise. Alex would have to settle in for a rough afteroon.
>BVC Offices Lobby, Some Time Later:
A long while later, Alex found himself sitting on the rough plastic chairs in the lobby of the hexagonal office towers. His head felt like it was full of cotton, whether from constant use of his mindware, or the effects of constantly shifting between virtual and actual reality. Everything felt like a bit of a blur, it even didn't feel clear how he'd wound up sitting here, but sweet relief from the constant barrage of testing was within sight. This was the last thing: Daniels was to give him a score.
"Well, you're a decent pilot. But I don't know how you can have your own military grade hardware, and that sort of flight training without having any sort of military background..." Daniels said. "Overall, you got a score of Sixty-Six out of a Hundred. Passing grade, but we're going to be keeping you out of any heavy combat where possible. Leave you in support behind teams out in the colonies."
Stepping forward, the head of security handed Alex a swipe card. "Rest up, then we'll call you when we have work for you."
"Alright." Alex said, barely able to concentrate hard enough to form the words. "And as for the training and hardware, well, I'll let you know when I find out."
"Well it'll come back to you. As odd as it is, these things happen." Daniels reassured, although his expression showed that he didn't find any of this odd or surprising in the slightest. "Rest up, son."
At that, Daniels walked away, heading towards the elevators, leaving Alex to sit there feeling woozy... Maybe a moment past, but soon enough Daniels was gone, and Alex would be able to spot a somewhat familiar face: Over by the reception desk, Van Banning's assistant Lili was signing out for the evening. She had her mousy bob cut pinned back by her ear to keep her face free, and wore a tartan peacoat over the business suit that was her uniform so to speak. A pair of heels were tucked in her largest coat pocket and she wore sneakers over her stockings.
Seemed he'd be working in the same building.
Walking over, Alex approached Lili, not sure if he should thank her for the opertunity or be mad for not warning him.
"What's new?" He asked.
Lili turned, thumb still on the little scanner at the security checkpoint.
"Oh... Hey... Alex right?" A small beep from behind her as her thumb registered. "No. Just busy with the branch office being set up, so it's a lot of people complaining about furniture and the phone tree set ups... Someone's been messing with the elevator music, but that's about the most remarkable thing."
"You mean that loud music?" Alex said, "Well I suppose if that's the most remarkable thing happening, then you're lucky."
Lili gave a little smile, covering her mouth with her hand as though she didn't want to show her teeth.
"I guess. How'd your interview go the other day?"
"It was... Interesting." Alex said after a moments hesatation. "What's the deal with some of those pilots? The one I went up against, Jolie I think it was, said something to the effect of ' I look forward to breaking you. ' And some of the other ones looked like they were dead inside."
Lili took a few steps towards the front door, but didn't quite move at a pace to be considered walking away from Alex.
"Jolie? I... Can't say I've ever met her. But most of the security team is sort of... I don't know. Boisterous?" Lili looked up to the polished tiles on the ceiling, as if peering up through to the upper levels of the tower. "Maybe she was just messing with you?"
Following Lili, Alex expressed his doubts. "She sounded dead serious to me."
"Well, you look like you're in one piece. Did she actually break you?" Lili asked with a little smirk, looking at her communicator to check the time as she continued towards the door.
"I held my own..." Alex said defensively, "But I was nowhere near prepared for this."
"Well you're in one piece," Lili said, giving Alex a light tap on the arm with the communicator as if to demonstrate solidity. "And you didn't say you failed the interview or any of the other tests. Prepared or not, you seem to have come out of this unscathed and with some work in your future."
"I guess you're right. I should head back to the shipyard" Alex said before begining to walk back to the area where he was staying.
"Alright. You look beat..." Lili says, rummaging about in the pocket of her jacket and producing a handkerchief; handing it to Alex. "And take this. Your nose is bleeding."
Leaving Alex holding the little cut of silk, Lili presses her thumb to a panel by the front door, stepping out and wandering into the night air of the frontier world she'd found herself on.
...It even smelled a little of her perfume...
Wiping his nose, Alex began to walk to the ship where he was staying, wondering where this would all lead.
Alex had been on hold for approximately 47 minutes now. Curiously, calling the offices of the strange corporation calling itself BVC led to an ear-splitting blast of Nepleslian Symphonic Hyper-Death Metal band "UltraGore Killing Fields of Stars" played on a loop. Intermittently cut between a pleasant operator's voice telling the caller that they were very important and their business was held dear by BVC. Without calling ahead, Alex had been informed, he would not be allowed past the lobby... It was a nice lobby, to be sure. The polished floors and tasteful sculpture of a gold woman holding a planetary body before her were pleasant to look at, but there was nowhere to sit, and the man at the security check-in was just staring at the young pilot out of boredom.
Finally, perhaps mercifully, the tone cut out. A soft voice on the other end picking up with an almost imperceptible sigh. Alex would be able to put the voice to the Personal Assistant he'd met on the beach some days earlier: Lili.
"Offices of Ms. Van Banning; to whom am I speaking?"
"This is Alex, I was given the contact information for this place a couple days ago." Alex thought that he might look a little weird talking out loud with no visible headset or communications device. "I was wondering if there were any oppertunities to do some work here. I don't really have much else to do at the moment."
From the other end, Alex could hear the tapping and popping noise of feedback on a volumetric keyboard. Details were being taken, apparently.
"Is this Alex Bendram, Alexi Etrostantsia, or Alex Dustrin?" Lili asked, "and I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific about your area of operations; 'here' is not very specific, I'm sorry."
"Err... Well, I don't really... have a last name." Alex said, slightly embarassed by the admission. "I think you met me a couple of days ago on the beach. As for where 'here' is, I don't think I can leave the planet without permission."
There was a moment of silence on the other end, followed by some feverish typing.
"I see. So I'm guessing 'here' implies that you are located near our western frontier office..." Lili said. "In what department are you applying for employment?"
"Near the giant hexagon from space, yes." Alex said. "As for what department, I don't really know. Where ever you need help I guess,"
A bit more typing, and the sound of a headset being wrenched away for a second on Lili's end... Some small voices ringing around in the background. Eventualy there was a slight clacking on the other end.
"You're... Look, you're not giving me much to work with here. Do you have any notable skills?" Lili asked. "There's nothing on the forms for people with no last name, and no background, with no specific interest. We mainly seek to hire experts... Do you have any field of expertise? If not, I can forward you to human resources and see about recommending you for maintenance."
Alex paused for a moment, considering on whether or not to explain. Deciding to take the chance, he explained how he seemed to be able to connect with his mecha and other machines.
Lili on the other end gave a little sigh of relief.
"Alright... I'll flag you for inspection by our security division." She said, audibly inputting far more data than Alex had actually given, "And a little advice? You should lead with your skills rather than just asking nonspecifically about work... You need to make us want to hire you. M'kay?"
A few more key presses, and a final chirp of something being sent.
"Mr. Daniels should be down in a few minutes to take you up to security to put you through an aptitude simulation."
Satisfied, and thankful that he hadn't messed anything up, Alex sat down to wait. I wonder what she meant by aptitude simulation. He thought to himself.
After Lili hung up on her end, and resumed working; it would take about another half hour for the one called Mister Daniels to appear in the lobby. The sun had risen high into the noon hour, eliminating all shadows in the lobby, but the air conditioning kept it nice and cool inside. Mr. Daniels appeared from an elevator bank behind the front desk, and stepped out. He was an older man, probably in his early forties. Whip-thin with neatly cropped black hair tinged with grey, wearing a neat three-piece suit minus the jacket, and elaborate cuban-heeled dress boots. Something about him looked a little stuck up, but none the less he crossed the lobby in a few loud steps and extended a hand to Alex, friendly smile on his face.
"You're Alex, right? One name, like Aldane, the pop star?"
Taking the hand, Alex gave it a quick, firm shake. Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly motion he said, "Well, the thing is, I don't really remember it."
Daniels could only give a little grin in return, squeezing Alex's hand in a moderate show of force. It was pretty clear Alex was the stronger of the two from the get-go.
"We-ell. That happens. I once forgot how my hands worked for nine months. It'll come back to you." Taking back his own hand, Daniels stuck it in his pocket and started walking back to the elevator, stopping only for a second to scan a thumb-print to sign Alex in to the building. "I'll be taking you up and testing you against Jolie. She's our resident pilot ace for security in the Enclave... It'll all be simulated, so don't be afraid to give her a good wallop, eh?"
Alex began to worry. He had no combat experience that he could remember aside from the disaster on the Necromancer, and he would be going up against someone who was the best of the best. All he could do was hope that things would come to him as they had in the past.
As Alex started to fret, he was led back to the elevator banks, ushered inside. The way up felt almost like the ride took hours, though it only took a few seconds all in all. Maybe it was that there was more UltraGore Killing Fields of Stars (Evil is Anointed Single Track) playing instead of the usual muzak piped in to an elevator. Always just a little too loud to be pleasant to the ear. As the elevator gave a obligatory sigh of satisfaction at a job well done, Alex was pushed out gently by Mr. Daniels... Almost crashing into someone standing just millimeters away from the elevator doors, resulting in him being gently pushed forward, then almost violently pulled backwards.
"Ah... Pardon, Alex. This is Jolie." Daniels said, indicating the young woman he'd almost been smashed into. She was middlingly tall, with perfectly straight black hair cropped to jaw length, and pulled back in a ponytail. Glassy grey eyes, and thin enough features to give her an almost hatchet-like quality to her face. Wearing a tight black piloting suit, underneath a mid-thigh length zippered hoodie emblazoned with some corporate insignia that meant nothing to Alex. She seemed... Severe, looking over Alex with no clear indication of whether she was registering him positively or negatively. Like a shark with a poker face.
Deciding that he had nothing to lose, Alex held a hand out in greeting and introduced himself. "Hello..."
Jolie very slowly looked down to Alex's hand, holding her stare for a second, before looking to Mr. Daniels. A weird cold moment passed before Daniels nodded and said something like 'go on'... At which point Jolie raised her arm, and very geeently took Alex's extended hand by the fingers. Giving it a turn sideways, she bent down a little and kissed him on the back of the hand.
Another akward beat.
"Um... No. You shake." Mr. Daniels explained, righting Jolie to a standing position, and physically manipulating Alex and Jolie's hands to display the proper motion for a handshake. Jolie just making a little noise in her throat to indicate understanding.
Unsure of what to do in response to Jolie's strange actions, Alex decided to move forward as if nothing has happened. "Anyways, I'm told you're a great pilot. I think that they want me to compete with you in a simulation."
Hand still extended forward, not dropping from where she'd held Alex's, Jolie looked to Daniels for confirmation. The man himself just unwrapped a lemon candy from his pocket and popped it into his mouth, biting through it in an audible crunch. He gave Jolie a nod of confirmation, causing her to move slightly to look Alex in the eye. And for an uncomfortable second Alex would feel like he was being somehow read like a book... By some sort of walking corpse; there was little life in her eyes.
"I look forward to breaking you." She said in a small voice, barely breaking a whisper.
Startled by the statement, Alex looked at Daniels for an explanation of some sort.
Daniels' answer wasn't exactly in the form Alex might expect. The form it came in actually turned out to be candy, as Daniels produced another sherbet lemon from the pocket of his waistcoat and handed it to Alex, before enthusiastically clapping his hands. "Well! Jolly good, let's take this to the simulation room by engineering, shall we?"
Without much explanation, Alex found himself being whisked down a hallway, through some sort of hangar where several mecha stood covered from head to toe in white tarps marked with the words 'ALL FRAMES MUST REMAIN STOWED FOR TRANSIT'. He'd faintly be able to recognise the mechanic from the beach working on a massive servo-mount, but a firm hand on his shoulder from Daniels guided him into a small room off the hangar, where dozens of toolboxes and workbenches were neatly stowed still. The only thing that wasn't still stowed from the orbital drop was a table in the middle of the room, with some sort of computer sitting on it. Two headsets resting beside it.
"So. We'll fit these to your mindware, and you should have specs for your machine still in there to render it in simulation. Then we'll run you through a couple of tests, and see if you're what we need in this company. Sound good?"
Nodding an affirmative, Alex slipped the headset on. The dialouge with the machine was much like that of his mecha. Soon, he found himself floating, unmoving, in a void full of light. Concentrating, Alex summoned his craft into existance. Feeling the familiar controls, Alex, linked with his craft. Looking around for Jolie he saw a simulated projection of a city. Most of it in rather low polygon white blocks, making it obviously fake. None the less there was just about everything one would expect in an urban combat simulation, right down to a 'civilian casualties' counter on his HUD. While the 'civilians' in question were little more than computer programs, they represented lives that needed to be preserved, even at the cost of him losing.
Alex would feel a hand on his shoulder sitting down his real body in meatspace, as his HUD would ping a detected enemy machine roughly four blocks away. No visual contact. He could see the little 'civilians' in the form of little cubes scurrying around in buildings. It was all a little cute actually.
"So. We can do you in a straight versus scenario, or put you through a team drill. Do you have any preferences, Alex?" Daniels' voice came through the VR, somehow ringing inside Alex's head.
Considering the question for a moment, Alex responded, "I'm not sure. Whatever suits you I guess."
"Alright, we'll see what you've got in a straight fight..." Daniels could be heard punching in a few commands. A few things blinked into Alex's HUD, then disappeared again as Daniels double-checked that options like orbital strike support, and simulated ground engineering crews were all off.
"Okay. Are you two ready?" Daniels asked.
"I am." The little hushed voice of Jolie could be barely heard. "I doubt he is."
Feeling a little insulted, Alex snappily replied, "I'm ready if you are."
"And... Go." Daniels said firmly, releasing full control to Alex and Jolie. His HUD would show a ping of his opponent moving about a few blocks away, but not with a direct approach... She was circling him for now.
Pulling out his medium plasma cannon, Alex boosted up and away from the city, trying to prevent any civilians from being hurt when he began to take fire. Alex began to look around for Jolie, trying to figure out what type of craft she was piloting.
Alex's scanners would pick up a few different pings. Bringing up an image of a tall machine painted white, with long thin limbs. It looked like it was built for speed moreso than endurance or sheer firepower, although the internal database on the simulated mech could only bring up 'type unknown'. As he rose up to the sky, Jolie piloted around at ground level more, launching around at speed to always keep cover between Alex and herself. No clear shots without potential for civilian casualty. By the looks of things she was detecting him as much as he was her.
A little image of his opponent came up in Alex's HUD on the simulator, Jolie just staring him in the eye. "You're not controlling a fighter, or a gunship you know? You're a sitting duck up there."
Focusing on the task at hand, Alex activated his EW suite and focused Its emitters. In order to overload Jolie's sensors, temporarily blind them and force a short shutdown. Having done that he dove into a cloud bank, and began to examine his options. Firing like this wasn't an option, because he might hurt civilians. He needed a new plan of attack.
The little image of Jolie in the corner of Alex's HUD cracked open into something that looked like a smile, giving off a surprisingly natural and girlish laugh for something with an expression like a preying mantis.
"Should have been your first move." She said, in that little whisper caught in a throat as Alex's sensors were hit with a sudden wave of interference, drowning out any sensory data he himself was getting. Both of them were flying blind as far as targetting was going now... "I'll wait down here for you. I already have everything I needed from my sensors anyway."
Alex began to get nervous. This pilot was in a whole other class. Thankfully, he had one advantage; his connection with his mecha would make it a lot easier to control, and he ought to be able to react quicker too.
Grimacing, Alex knew that long range combat wasn't an option anymore. Pulling out his light pulsed plasma cannon in one hand and one of his plasma pistol saber, Alex dove through the cloud layer, pulling up at the last moment and relying on his instincts to warn him. Unbeknownst to him, the Silhouette/Mirror system activated, creating a short-lived AI based directly off of of his mental structure and increasing his reaction time up to 400% of its already impressive base.
As Alex came back down to ground level, his sensors remained jammed. He could get a decent rough idea of where Jolie and her machine were, at the very least... At least until the last moment before landing. At ground level, the interference seemed to have split, his HUD painting no less than four seperate locations where her counter-ECM was in effect. And those four sources were closing in on him, moving around in cover...
"So you see, I'm moving around preventing visual contact. Yes? It's a shame you're falling for all this, you know?" The little HUD image kept up its quiet chatter, soft and soothing. "But I admire your bravery coming down to meet me head on, even though you know I'm better than you are. It's a shame I have to hurt you, even though it's only make believe."
Ignoring the jamming, Alex altered his hud to show mass signatures instead of energy and radar, instructing the computers to ignore any mass signatures smaller than half his mass and bigger that twice his mass. He then cross referenced these with energy signatures large enough to be a power plant for a mecha.
Narrowing down the band of his scans, Alex finds that the environment has about four dozen different objects of roughly that amount of mass. Things like large trucks in the streets, smaller buildings. He was getting closer. Cross-referencing to energy signiatures cut it down to about eleven potential locations. The prevalence of aether reactors used to power vehicles making it a bit more difficult. Closer still...
All this didn't quite help as with all this sensor jamming still in effect, an explosion rocked against Alex's shields, not quite managing to do more than superficial damage. Inaccurate missile fire starting to crash down around him from above. She must have had a bead on him somehow, but didn't seem to be able to target him with precision. She just seemed to be bombing the entire street he was in!
Moving to protect the civilians and infrastructure, Alex activated his point defense laser to shoot the missiles down and trusted the targeting computer to do its job while he focused on more important things. Tracking the source of the missiles, he flew upward to get a better vantage point. Once again, he narrowed the search parameters even more, adding a filter to show only sources that were emitting jamming or shield signatures.
With jamming still in effect, Alex finds that his targetting computer is mostly rendered useless in regards to the pinpoint targetting needed to intercept missiles. The missiles crashing along the street... Strangely, his little counter of civilian casualties doesn't go up. There just didn't seem to be anyone in that street. Or maybe it was only counting casualties caused by Alex? It was hard to tell.
"Why are you flying up...?" A little whisper came over his comms, as everything around him burst in a flash of blinding light. Four thermo-nuclear Streaker rockets bursting around his now exposed mech. Still unable to get through his own jamming to target precisely, the shots seemed to be relying more upon area denial moreso than anything... Still, his flying upwards meant he was vulnerable... And he could see these four shots were fired from below.
Alex finds himself streaking downwards, several tears in his armor, and soaring downwards; knocked out of stable flight as his sensors narrow down to an approximate final location about three blocks away.
"Don't fly out of cover unless you're going to more cover." Jolie's voice drifted into his cockpit. "I clearly had a bead on you when I shot the first salvo... Don't go out into the open when you know I have a shot, okay?"
Pulling himself out of the dive, Alex switched his plasma pistol into sword mode and began to approach the location that he had determined. Close combat is my only chance. I need to get her before she slips away, he thought. He took up a stance that would allow him to fight in close combat easily but also make accurate shots with his plasma cannon.
Launching himself directly at his opponent, Alex gets perhaps his first good look at her machine. An almost skeletal, but still quite heavy seeming medium-machine. It looked positively lethal somehow, or maybe it was just how Jolie gave that sharkish smile in his HUD as he approached.
"Getting close, then?" She said, her machine taking up a fighting stance and grasping at the hilt of a heavy mechanical hilt mounted at the small of its back, underneath a couple of empty racks. With a quick pull of the weapon, and an upward slash to a nearby building, Alex found the facade of a block of condos starting to topple down toward him, obscuring the area between them with dust and tumbling rubble.
Switching his visuals to thermal, Alex dove through the smoke to find Jolie's machine having not moved anywhere but forward, already bringing its sword down towards His mech. The Silhouette/Mirror's assistance allowed him to dodge out of the way, dropping his gun with one hand and grabbing the arm of Jolie's machine with it, twisting and maneuvering himself to be in a hold position, his mecha holding Jolie's down on the ground with his saber poised to strike.
As Alex pulled in to extreme close range, he found himself poised in a very good position over Jolie. But a little warning on his HUD read 'Warning! Shield integrity compromised!' Followed by another warning reading 'Warning! Severe Damage to Rear Armor!' Nothing on his sensors, but they'd been jammed for a while now. Abruptly Alex felt four heavy impacts, toppling him off the top of Jolie's mech and sending him sprawling a little bit away. Jolie popping back up.
"Support drones." Jolie said, as Alex spotted one of the four custom job OI Kirin Feathers zipping around. Three more were embedded into Alex's machine's back. "We can continue if you want, but I think this is okay for round one."
"Fine with me" Alex said, mentally exhausted, before returning to his physical body.
There was a slight jarring sensation as Alex's eyes refocused on the room around him. It wasn't just him and the other two anymore, about six more people in flight suits were sitting around, staring at the wall mounted screen which seemed to be showing a picture-in-picture of both pilots' viewpoints. Some seemed mad, others were chatting. Two more of them were just staring with the same glassy-eyed expression as Jolie. One of them was exchanging money, while others were complaining about their bets.
Jolie sat across the table, moving the headset she wore to the table, then returning her hands to her lap.
"Opinions?" Daniels asked, holding up a datapad where he'd clearly been taking notes.
"He has talent, but clearly has no operational knowledge or training." Jolie explained. "He didn't contact the local authorities to call for an evacuation in the combat zone as he should have. He didn't identify the support drones. He left cover too many times, leaving him vulnerable to area denial attacks. He didn't think to jam communications. He got me in a lock, but had he just fired that cannon at me instead of moving in to do that, I'd have been on the back foot."
Daniels nodded, taking notes. Then taking some money from the pilot who seemed to have been acting as bookie.
"Alright, we'll have to run him through a couple more simulations before final evaluation." Daniels dropped his datapad on the table. "You need a drink of water, or something? Or are you good to go?"
Disheartened after hearing his performance dissected mercilessly, Alex just shook his head. "I'm fine" He said.
"Good work ethic, I like it." Daniels said, clapping Alex warmly on the shoulder, before bringing a few more of the pilots around to plug in for a team exercise. Alex would have to settle in for a rough afteroon.
>BVC Offices Lobby, Some Time Later:
A long while later, Alex found himself sitting on the rough plastic chairs in the lobby of the hexagonal office towers. His head felt like it was full of cotton, whether from constant use of his mindware, or the effects of constantly shifting between virtual and actual reality. Everything felt like a bit of a blur, it even didn't feel clear how he'd wound up sitting here, but sweet relief from the constant barrage of testing was within sight. This was the last thing: Daniels was to give him a score.
"Well, you're a decent pilot. But I don't know how you can have your own military grade hardware, and that sort of flight training without having any sort of military background..." Daniels said. "Overall, you got a score of Sixty-Six out of a Hundred. Passing grade, but we're going to be keeping you out of any heavy combat where possible. Leave you in support behind teams out in the colonies."
Stepping forward, the head of security handed Alex a swipe card. "Rest up, then we'll call you when we have work for you."
"Alright." Alex said, barely able to concentrate hard enough to form the words. "And as for the training and hardware, well, I'll let you know when I find out."
"Well it'll come back to you. As odd as it is, these things happen." Daniels reassured, although his expression showed that he didn't find any of this odd or surprising in the slightest. "Rest up, son."
At that, Daniels walked away, heading towards the elevators, leaving Alex to sit there feeling woozy... Maybe a moment past, but soon enough Daniels was gone, and Alex would be able to spot a somewhat familiar face: Over by the reception desk, Van Banning's assistant Lili was signing out for the evening. She had her mousy bob cut pinned back by her ear to keep her face free, and wore a tartan peacoat over the business suit that was her uniform so to speak. A pair of heels were tucked in her largest coat pocket and she wore sneakers over her stockings.
Seemed he'd be working in the same building.
Walking over, Alex approached Lili, not sure if he should thank her for the opertunity or be mad for not warning him.
"What's new?" He asked.
Lili turned, thumb still on the little scanner at the security checkpoint.
"Oh... Hey... Alex right?" A small beep from behind her as her thumb registered. "No. Just busy with the branch office being set up, so it's a lot of people complaining about furniture and the phone tree set ups... Someone's been messing with the elevator music, but that's about the most remarkable thing."
"You mean that loud music?" Alex said, "Well I suppose if that's the most remarkable thing happening, then you're lucky."
Lili gave a little smile, covering her mouth with her hand as though she didn't want to show her teeth.
"I guess. How'd your interview go the other day?"
"It was... Interesting." Alex said after a moments hesatation. "What's the deal with some of those pilots? The one I went up against, Jolie I think it was, said something to the effect of ' I look forward to breaking you. ' And some of the other ones looked like they were dead inside."
Lili took a few steps towards the front door, but didn't quite move at a pace to be considered walking away from Alex.
"Jolie? I... Can't say I've ever met her. But most of the security team is sort of... I don't know. Boisterous?" Lili looked up to the polished tiles on the ceiling, as if peering up through to the upper levels of the tower. "Maybe she was just messing with you?"
Following Lili, Alex expressed his doubts. "She sounded dead serious to me."
"Well, you look like you're in one piece. Did she actually break you?" Lili asked with a little smirk, looking at her communicator to check the time as she continued towards the door.
"I held my own..." Alex said defensively, "But I was nowhere near prepared for this."
"Well you're in one piece," Lili said, giving Alex a light tap on the arm with the communicator as if to demonstrate solidity. "And you didn't say you failed the interview or any of the other tests. Prepared or not, you seem to have come out of this unscathed and with some work in your future."
"I guess you're right. I should head back to the shipyard" Alex said before begining to walk back to the area where he was staying.
"Alright. You look beat..." Lili says, rummaging about in the pocket of her jacket and producing a handkerchief; handing it to Alex. "And take this. Your nose is bleeding."
Leaving Alex holding the little cut of silk, Lili presses her thumb to a panel by the front door, stepping out and wandering into the night air of the frontier world she'd found herself on.
...It even smelled a little of her perfume...
Wiping his nose, Alex began to walk to the ship where he was staying, wondering where this would all lead.
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