Global Awakening: Apocalypse Ender's Chronicle

With Xyrille’s focus, by the third hour, she was able to hit a 68% sync rate... It was definitely not enough at the moment, but before the fourth Zombie Wave, she believed that her sync rate would be high enough to participate in the battle.

As for the other three pilots, she wasn’t sure what they were doing right now, but she believed that her sync rate should be the highest among them.

After this training, Xyrille had a late lunch.

To her surprise, the prepared meal was actually quite good. There was a mushroom and egg scramble for their meal.

They don’t seem to be wild-foraged mushrooms, seeing how they were all the same size. It was quite tasty, especially the egg scramble that had some powdered cheese.

’I wonder how they’re producing these…’ Xyrille mused. Well, she doesn’t know anyone in the Food Production Division, so she could only imagine.

While she ate, she also noticed that there was a small board telling them the menu for dinner.

They would have kedgeree…

’What’s that?’ Xyrille thought as she squinted her eyes to see further notes about this food.

[ Base: Smoked Troll Catfish, mixed with hard-boiled duck eggs and rice.

Spices: Turmeric, dried chili flakes, garlic. ]

Smoked meat wasn’t unusual since they had limited space in their refrigerators.

’I wonder why it’s called Troll Catfish…’ She mused.

***

After lunch, Xyrille headed straight to her live fire drills…

The Weapons Testing Range was actually outside the shelter this time. It wasn’t walled just yet, but it was a perfect place to conduct this activity.

At this time, there were already multiple shredded dummies and cratered steel on site and she felt a bit excited just by going to this area…

Then, unlike the full Aegis Mech Frames, this was where individual components were pushed to their limits—arms with mounted cannons, legs with hydraulic stompers, and even disembodied torsos rigged for target practice.

This was to ensure that their products were battle-tested.

Today, the focus was on arm-mounted weaponry.

Xyrille walked into the bay and noticed the engineer, including the other pilots...

Indeed, the three other Pilot Trainees were already there, each strapped into partial rigs and their arms encased in the skeletal limbs of Aegis prototypes.

Arris was one of them. She found him a bit cocky just because he was previously working as a Sniper of Watchtower 7 in one Springriver Manor, one of Lord Shane’s shelters.

She was currently testing the Vanguard’s shoulder-mounted plasma launcher. It was quite a powerful weapon, and to be honest, Xyrille also wanted the Vanguard since it had such a strong weapon.

However, since her Talent was Close Combat, she was currently assigned to a Juggernaut until Aegis-05 or Reaper was available.

Of course, although the other Mech Frames weren’t available just yet, their weapons could still be used.

As a matter of fact, Regina, one of the Trainee Pilots, was already syncing with Reaper’s twin plasma blades. Although the Reaper wouldn’t be available within two weeks, its weapon might be very usable at that time.

Lastly, there was Garren, who wasn’t really a fighter like the three of them but actually a technician... Xyrille was confused about this at first, but after learning that Garren would actually pilot Aegis-06 or the Overseer, it certainly made sense.

At this time, however, he was simply running diagnostics on the Juggernaut’s rotary cannons.

’They all seem busy…’ Xyrille thought as she approached Sir Arial…

Arial had a special status in the Strategic Command of the Fortress, and he actually had many jobs.

This time, however, he was their drillmaster. He was on the control terminal, reading through the various information that the Trainee Pilots had provided so far.

”Alright… Let’s start another test. Let’s see if you can hit something smaller… We’re testing accuracy right now.”

At first, they were tested to shoot static targets…

Soon, everyone strapped themselves onto their partial rigs as their arms were encased in the skeletal limbs of Aegis prototypes.

Just like that, a series of zombie drones or skeletal mockups were placed into the range for each Mech Frame’s parts to destroy.

Arris fired first, using the weapon, he was in control…

Boom!

A plasma shot vaporized three targets in a single streak of a blue-white projectile.

Regina, on the other hand, controlled the hand of the Mech Frame holding the Plasma Katanas to slice the drones clean in half.

Then, at this time, Garren unleashed a wall of lead, shredding everything in a 90-degree arc using the rotary cannon.

Then it was Xyrille’s turn. At this time, she was controlling the Phantom’s railgun.

There shouldn’t be a problem with its precision, so as long as she focuses, she shouldn’t have a problem hitting her unmoving target.

Xyrille took a deep breath as she knew also knew that a single misaligned thought, and the shot would go wide.

She exhaled.

Fired.

Bang!

The round punched through five targets in a straight line, each hole smoking with superheated edges.

”Huh.” Sir Arial nodded... ”Guess you can aim.”

After that, they have to hit moving targets…

The drones moved faster and even smartly as they moved like humans. They weren’t just moving in a straight line… They also ducked and moved side to side.

This time, Arris missed his first shot. He couldn’t help but curse as the plasma charge took precious seconds to reload.

Regina, on the other hand, overextended with her blade and missed her target.

As for Garren, his rotary cannons were effective, but it took multiple shots to hit his target.

As for Xyrille’s railgun, it actually overheated after six shots. At this moment, she could only switch to the backup mono-wire. She released the wire like a whip to decapitate two drones mid-leap.

’These weapons are only good for fighting against a crowd anyway… If we have to deal with a single opponent, it’s better to give that task to Warden Units.’ Xyrille thought.

Of course, in a real battle, this was certainly true since they would waste a lot of resources if Mech Frames were used to hunt a few targets… However, this Testing Range was only to see the limit of their weapons and not for practicality.

”Good…” Sir Arial said with a nod. He wasn’t expecting a perfect score on this test anyway. Furthermore, he had already learned the adjustments needed in the weapons…

”Now… I need to see the limit of these things for the record.” Arial muttered as a new target emerged—a large, armored object. Its plating was supposedly resistant to plasma and bullets, but they needed to try it today, so they could consider whether to incorporate them into the Mech Frames or not.

”Alright… Try it out…” Arial said. This time, the weapons weren’t the ones being tested but the target itself.

”Roger!”

Arris then fired his Plasma Launcher...

Bam! Bam!

It was a hit, but the target remained unmoved. There were also no cracks on its armor!

’I probably need 20 or more shots.’ Arris guessed as he looked at the target.

Regina then used the Mech Frame’s blades and struck the target… Thud!

There was only sparking against armor—no penetration.

”Tsk… This is tough, Sir Arial. What’s that thing?” Regina asked.

Garren also unloaded his rotary cannon only to confirm that there were no damages…

”I’m guessing it’s a Legendary Grade Steel Plate or something? Did Sir Shane upgrade them? I heard that he had a 100% success rate with his upgrading ability.” Garren commented.

In the meantime, Xyrille didn’t immediately act even after getting Sir Arial’s signal…

She was searching for a gap that she could actually exploit. Although it wasn’t likely, it was definitely worth a try, considering that all three others did nothing…

’Ahh… It’s there…’ Xyrille blinked as she noticed a small gap at the lower part of the target.

After a few moments, Xyrille triggered her Phantom’s Railgun!

Bang!

The target was hit successfully, but as she looked to see whether there was damage, she felt a bit disappointed.

”That’s too tough, Sir Arial. Are you equipping the Mech Frames with that armor?” She suddenly asked.

”I still have to think about it. They’re too expensive to make. They’re made by Elf Craftsmen after all.” Arial answered.

”Ah? They’re made by elves?!” The four Trainee Pilots couldn’t help but feel shocked. They thought that the Elves only knew how to make Bows, Arrows, Potions, and other mystical items crafted from wood, herbs, leather, and such.

They didn’t expect them to be well-versed in crafting steel armor.

”Alright… I got the data I needed…”

***

At around seven in the evening, Xyrille doesn’t have much to do. She just had to wait until eight in the evening to have dinner with all the crew members of the Mech Division.

Because of that, she decided to just visit the hangar and inspect the Mech Frame assigned to her. She personally inspected her Mech’s joints, hydraulics, and weapon systems.

Seeing what Xyrille was doing, a grease-stained mechanic chuckled and approached her. ”Do you want to be a mechanic as well?”

Xyrille didn’t look up and replied… ”I just don’t want to be clueless.”