The four XV104-model battlesuits, known as Riptides, looked rather ridiculous at the moment.
They were like toddlers learning to walk. Their steps were unsteady, and one wrong move sent them tumbling over.
However, that state did not last even three minutes before Unit One could barely walk.
At this rate, it seemed as if getting started was easy enough, and they would soon be able to freely operate the battlesuits.
Watching this, Jinguuji Marimo began to wonder whether she really needed sensation-sharing instruction herself.
Looking at Takamura Yui, who had managed to walk after such a short time, Marimo hesitated over whether she should end the lesson and simply board a machine to figure it out on her own.
But after remembering Kouzuki Yuuko's warning that she had to listen to Mr. Kain, she decided to focus properly on sensing his movements.
So she also tried not to think about the fact that she was currently wearing a rather awkward combat suit, positioned before him in a terrible posture.
Hm?
The machine had begun performing complex movements. It was jumping forward, left, and right, tracing a lightning-like path.
The sensation transmitted by those movements made her legs sway along with it, which meant her hips were moving violently right in front of Mr. Kain.
No. What was she thinking? Hadn't she told herself not to think about that?
Focus. Concentrate on the amplitude of the tremors being shared with her. That would tell her how much force was required. At the same time, she carefully sensed her toes as well, because subtle changes occurred there too.
For example, pressing the big toe forward in a motion that resembled curling it would trigger the micro-thruster on the machine's foot.
The force used in that curl was equivalent to how far the accelerator was pressed down. The harder she pressed, the stronger the thrust.
In addition, there were certain hand gestures she had to understand as well, since each one activated a different function.
As for why she needed to learn how to pilot this despite already being the pilot of the XG-70b Susanoo Mk. IV, it was naturally to prepare for contingencies.
If a special situation arose and the pilot had to be changed, she needed to know how to operate this kind of machine too.
Half an hour later, Marimo was already piloting it in practice.
Although she still could not operate it as flexibly as Mr. Kain, and still could not properly perform special maneuvers, ordinary movements were mostly no problem.
Next came operating the two waist-mounted quad cannons.
They were originally equipped with an intelligent targeting system, but when engaging targets, if there were too many of them, the system might prioritize the nearest targets first.
At times like that, if certain special individuals among the many targets had to be attacked first, manual control would be required.
So Marimo switched to manual control and fired at the target she had manually calibrated ahead of her.
In an instant, eight warheads shot out at supersonic speed. Across a distance of one thousand meters, they struck faster than the blink of an eye.
There was no explosion like she had imagined. The point of impact was simply pulverized.
Clearly, the destructive effect of these warheads was the same as the missiles from before.
After several tests, she moved on to shooting while running, but her accuracy while moving was much worse.
As for the three giant cannons on the head of this machine, they were not included in the test. Their power was simply too enormous. According to Mr. Kain, they were more than ten times stronger than the plasma cannon mode of the smaller battlesuit.
However, aside from the two waist-mounted quad cannons, the waist also housed two particle accelerators: particle beam weapons. They were the same kind of beam guns mounted on the XV104.
In addition to firing particle beams, they could also transform the gun body and compress a plasma sphere as a shell before launching it.
Those two particle beam weapons were permitted for use.
Once she had emptied the ammunition of both quad cannons, her training ended. She would disembark and go activate nearly half of the smaller machine's systems.
Another member would come up to learn next.
"Takamura Yui, you're up!"
"Understood. Coming, Instructor."
Yui climbed down from her own machine and headed to the cockpit of the larger one to receive instruction.
When she arrived in the cockpit and was told how to put on the sensory equipment, her face instantly stiffened.
Th-this really was far too embarrassing.
Biting her lip, she still removed her outer suit, exposing the thin combat suit underneath.
It felt more humiliating than wearing nothing at all.
But this was not the time to be delicate. It was not the time to be shy.
Time was tight. There was no room to waste on these things, and no time for her to figure out the controls by trial and error.
Although she could now roughly run, walk, and jump, her current control still was not as agile as when she operated a TSF.
She still had to avenge her comrades. She had to avenge the cadets from her class who had all been killed after Kyoto was invaded by the BETA.
She had to avenge nearly one-third of her countrymen who had been slaughtered.
The flames of revenge overwhelmed her embarrassment, and she positioned herself in the sensory equipment, assuming an indecent posture in front of Instructor Kain.
She secretly glanced at him.
He was not paying attention to her at all. That made her feel relieved, but at the same time, guilt began to grow inside her.
Because her sneaking a glance at him meant she had not trusted him. She had doubted his character and suspected he might look at her in an improper way.
Before long, she qualified and disembarked after taking ten minutes longer than Instructor Jinguuji.
Meanwhile, Instructor Jinguuji's performance in her own Riptide Unit One was already comparable to how she handled a TSF.
Next-
"Isumi Michiru, you're up."
Marimo was not choosing people at random. She was picking whoever had performed best while figuring out the controls on their own. That way, they would learn faster and return sooner to master the smaller machines.
There were still some differences between operating the smaller machine and the larger one, but after becoming familiar with the larger machine's controls, they could quickly grasp the rhythm of operating the smaller one as well.
Time passed in a blur, and then everyone's instruction was finished.
Marimo personally took forty minutes. Yui took fifty minutes. Isumi Michiru took sixty-three minutes. Suzumiya Haruka took sixty-nine minutes. Hayase Mitsuki took seventy-seven minutes.
By the time all the instruction was over, night had fallen.
After that, Marimo operated the larger machine while the other four familiarized themselves with the smaller machines for one hour. Then they spent another hour attempting mutual combat drills, bringing the time to past eight in the evening.
There were roughly eighteen hours left until tomorrow's 1400 operation.
Now, it was time to rest and eat.
So when Marimo and the others looked at the steaming food in front of them, they froze.
No matter how they looked at it, this did not seem like food that could have been cooked on this island.
They had not seen him leave either. Did that mean he had prepared it in advance and stored it on the larger machine?
Had he simply heated it up now?
But it looked very fresh, as if it had just been made.
There were even all kinds of drinks, fruit, and desserts.
Had they come here for a vacation?
"…Eat."
"What are you standing around for? Eat your fill so we can continue training."
Marimo spoke as well. Otherwise, the others would have remained somewhat restrained.
Only after she began eating first did the others follow.
In the blink of an eye, the meal was over. Just as everyone's mental state was at its most relaxed and comfortable-
"Instructor Kain, what kind of power source does that machine use?"
Isumi Michiru could not help asking out of curiosity.
The next second, she immediately received Instructor Jinguuji's death glare. Cold sweat broke out across her body, and she wanted to slap herself.
That was probably classified information she should not have casually asked about. She had made a mistake.
"A Nova reactor."
Huh? He could answer that?
But Marimo's gaze on her became even sharper.
"It is an antimatter-driven power system. The energy it produces is close to the scale of a small star."
He then added that explanation.
It was actually powered by antimatter?
Was this technology not far too advanced?
Wait. What was the second half of that sentence?
Everyone's faces changed sharply, because they unconsciously realized the terrifying implication of the latter half of his statement.
The energy it produced was close to the scale of a small star.
(End of Chapter)
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