The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4076

Chapter 4076 Training Results

As Hopecrest Mech Academy continued to embrace their War Squires, its mech cadets started to make a name for themselves.

Whenever they competed against each other in both formal and informal competitions in a virtual practice setting, the Hopecrest cadets quickly started to win more battles.

The improvement was not that obvious at first. Even though Mickey and the rest mainly relied on the MSTS to conduct their simulation training, they could not use it to connect to conventional virtual training environments.

The cadets were all forced to hop inside their old and shabby simulator pods in order to compete in the periodic virtual exchange sessions.

It was only after a couple of months had passed that the Unicum Group finally spent a portion of its limited budget on acquiring a batch of newer simulator pods.

The group was able to save a lot of money because it no longer had to invest in new training mechs.

Once the mech cadets of Hopecrest Mech Academy were no longer handicapped in terms of technology, they started to show off their newly-acquired skills properly whenever they competed against their peers from the other mech academies!

Although most colonists on Maylard II considered these inter-academy exchanges and competitions to be playful distractions, the leaders of the L9 Alliance paid closer attention to the results.

They did not forget the fact that the Red Ocean was a dangerous frontier. Although the alliance had tried its best to hide from all of these troubles by colonizing a remote and relatively resource-poor star system, trouble might knock on its doors eventually.

If not for the fact that it took a lot of time and funding to build up their colony settlements, they would have invested even more in building up their armed forces!

While the L9 Alliance was unable to strengthen its defenses at this early stage, it did not lose perspective of the future.

The mech academies played a vital role in training strong and qualified mech cadets to serve as loyal soldiers in the future.

Previously, the alliance treated the students of Hopecrest Mech Academy as a lost cause, but the changes that recently took place caused everyone on Maylard II to change their prior impressions.

Among the nine local mech academies, Hopecrest started to rise from the bottom!

This became especially galling to the cadets who attended larger mech academies that were much better funded and equipped!

The opponents that the cadets of Hopecrest wanted to beat the most were the smug students of Clear River Mech Academy.

Unlike Centire Hill, Ulmerton was large and prosperous. The group behind this colony settlement managed to reach the Maylard System without losing any ships and cargo, so the colonists did not suffer from any critical shortages when they built up their frontier city.

Clear River enrolled almost three times more mech cadets as Hopecrest and also possessed much more comprehensive training systems, at least initially. The mech cadets from Ulmerton were able to train and polish their skills with decent training mechs and modern simulator pods for a longer time.

Yet no matter how much cadets who attended Clear River practiced with their ordinary training mechs, they found it progressively harder to beat their rivals from Hopecrest.

Many people found this to be difficult to accept! Ulmerton was the second-largest settlement on Maylard II while Centire Hill was smaller and poorer!

Two years after Hopecrest received a donation from the Larkinson Veteran Foundation, Mickey Lankos and many of his fellow cadets had undergone drastic changes.

As Mickey became 15 years old, he grew taller and heavier. He also carried himself with a lot more confidence due to his consistently high performance during his practical lessons.

As he and his fellow Hopecrest cadets hopped into the recently-acquired simulator pods, he showed no fear or hesitation when he was assigned to duel against a Clear River cadet.

Two different virtual mechs appeared onto a simple grassy plain.

The virtual mech that Mickey had chosen to pilot for this duel was a generic second-class rifleman mech.

"I really wish I could pilot a War Squire or at least another LMC mech."

Unfortunately, he and the other mech cadets could only choose from a limited selection of basic machines that were suitable for beginner pilots. While the available choices were more powerful than training mechs, they were far behind in terms of power and comfort.

Despite these differences, Mickey did not find it troublesome to control his machine.

The sensor system of his rifleman mech already spotted his opponent.

An identical rifleman mech had already started to open fire several kilometers away!

None of the incoming laser beams struck their mark as Mickey's mech hastily bowed and hid behind a low hill.

By using the existing terrain features as cover, Mickey was able to fire back while keeping him mostly safe.

Not much happened after the initial exchange of fire. The problem was that both sides adopted the same conservative tactic, thereby achieving little else but burning and heating up a lot of dirt.

Both Mickey and the cadet from Clear River knew that they had to move closer and gain a favorable angle in order to make more progress.

That required them to expose their mechs, however! If any of them got caught in the open, then they would likely invite hits without being able to retaliate!

Usually, a standoff like this turned into a waiting game. The opposing ranged mechs should ordinarily continue to take potshots at each other while hiding behind until their energy reserves or the time limit compelled them to take risks.

Mickey did not abide by this convention.

As soon as he noticed that they had fallen into this pattern, he took the initiative to break it first by commanding his virtual mech to jump out of cover and sprint forward as fast as possible!

"What!"

The cadet from Clear River was initially surprised, then elated when his opponent's mech appeared in the open!

Yet try as he might, he continually misjudged and missed his shots. The few hits he managed to land were mostly lucky accidents that he wasn't able to repeat on a consistent basis. _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}

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