"Oh shit, what have you gotten yourself into Al." Alto cried in his small room, which housed a lone bed. There was no window but a simple air conditioning unit that ran through all other rooms. But it did have an even smaller toilet within. Everything about the room spoke of necessity rather than comfort, in the mech division #1056, there was no such thing as comfort. Only result.
He had heard of trainees doing exceptionally well to be promoted to a better room but he knew that would never be him. He was still the same wimpy kid from back then, his worth was still less than what he had set for himself.
Thinking of how far he had fallen from Amy made his feel cold and distant underneath. He had heard rumours of her leading the trainees of their set, that day was the day of the big test. He was yet to know the results but he knew this, those who performed exceptionally well would be given the title of cadets, to finally begin to work in the field of actual mech piloting.
Alto knew it was only a short amount of time before they would come to face each other and would he be able to survive a confrontation with Amy. Nor had he forgotten Kram who he had made a bet with three years prior on their arrival at the mech division. These felt more like debts that failures, Amy would want him to be the best, and Kram would want him to remain the same trash he always was.
The only way to stand next to them was to become a genius himself. Since being separated from them Alto had no one to talk to, he had been living in loneliness for the past three years. Barely scraping through his teachings and just when he finally achieved the recognition he sought for fate dealt him the heavy card.
Alto clawed at the device on his wrist that very much resembled his wrist comm but every time he did he could feel it digging it's needle deeper into his wrist. This caused him to cry out in agony, it was like the device was giving him a warning.
"Why won't you get off me, you damn virus." He threw himself at the wall hoping to shatter the device but it came back fine.
Alto repeated this for minutes before exhausting all of his strength and falling on his bed. "Dammit, am I going to die from this thing. What is it really."
Just then the wrist comm started to beep and give a soft blue glow. Alto raised it to his face and after much deliberation he chose to tap on it the normal way he did to activate his wrist comm. He was curious as to what the device was or whether it was really his wrist comm come back for a second life. But he doubted that.
The device beamed with a glowing blue icon that started to spin in circles for a few seconds before showing something else. The image that showed next was a set of strange texts that gliched repeatedly before becoming a similar language to him.
[The Mech Designer Protocol is being initiated]
[Please Standby...]
Alto's eyes widened. "Mech designer protocol, is that an application or a screensaver?"
The wrist comm let out a visible blue pulse that went a few inches before vanishing. Alto was confused but his confusion only grew more as another pulse came from it, this one going a farther distance as a couple of feet.
[The Mech Designer Protocol is being initiated]
[Please Standby...]
Alto gulped down as the pulses from the device started to become more frequent and massive to the extent that it left the confines of his room and reached out across the other regions of the mech division.
Meanwhile in a farther region of the mech division Amy was standing with her hands crossed behind her back in a military stance. Her eyes looking out at officer sitting behind the table, it was Officer Shirley Sanderson the acting commanding officer of the mech division. He had welcomed the newcommers three years prior and since then they had barely set their eyes on him. And now he was before them addressing them.
By officer Shirley's side was officer Pedro Lascara who had overseen their test earlier that day.
By Amy were three other trainees now facing the proud officer.
Officer Shirley Sanderson cleared his throat and took his eyes off the file before him and then at them before saying. "The four of you have performed exceptionally well for your class. For this reason you have now been promoted to the rank of cadets, Amy, Kram, Vexar and Denise, the four of you are to begin advanced training suitable for your levels. Working with real mechs and operating them, you will be stationed to beneath the first grade officers. I trust that you will continue to live up to my expectations. If you have any questions I will do well to entertain them."
The trainees first kept silent without any of them coming up with a question at the moment.
Vexar was the first to speak up, he started with a salute as he spoke. "Sir, pardon me for asking but I suspected that there would be a bigger reward for our performance."
Officer Shirley Sanderson frowned even more than was thought possible as he spoke. "Do you think we run a charity here Cadet Vexar?"
Vexar instinctively straightened his back and said, "No sir!"
Officer Shirley added. "For your performance you have increased your chances of recieving mentorship from better mech pilots and organisations. As you should know our planet Soto is nothing compared to the reached of human civilization over the vast galaxy. How much do you know of MUG."
At the mention of this Amy's eyes darkened slightly.
Officer Shirley continued. "The might of the Mech Union of the Galaxy and The Embassy."
Images flashed through Amy's mind as her hands balled into fists, before the officer could press forward a massive surge of soft blue light appeared and crossed through them. The entire mech division shook violently as the power went out across the entire mech division leaving everywhere in darkness.
"What on earth is going on?" Kram said in shock. "A power outage."
Officer Lascara who felt uncomfortable into the dark spoke up. "No, the mech division does not experience power outages. This is something else."