A week came and went since the second activation, finally it was time to leave the hospital. Samuel had seen his father only once during a visit to the hospital; his grand father came over a few more times. Right now Samuel looked at the mirror with a smile; he was dressed in the already known blue uniform, the only difference with an already trained pilot was that the star in the middle of the gear emblem was missing.
"Mr. Terrence, is time for you to leave. We will send you along with Mr. Gonzales to the city main training facility, we wish you good luck and that you survive the fights ahead"
With this, both men were discharged, a convoy of armored vehicles from the army took the two men on a long trip. Five hundred kilometer later they finally got down from the vehicles, it was already afternoon, the two future pilots looked ahead, the training field of the military base extended towards the horizon. From the distance they saw a few exoskeletons near the hangar, the metallic huge machines stood immobile; like cold and deadly statues.
"Men, I can't believe I will be piloting one of those" said Hector.
"Well, you better believe it, thats what we are here for" Although he said that, Samuel face had the same marveled expression as Hector's.
One of the military member of the convoy led them inside. As they walked down the hallway the oncoming military officers saluted the two young men with utmost respect; the two young men tried to salute back the best they could as they passed by. Finally they made it to an office, the military officer knocked on the door.
"Come in" someone inside authorized.
The three men went inside.
"Sir, Officers Terrence and Gonzales will start their training in the base, sir"
"Thank you soldier, dismissed"
Both men saluted one another and one left the room. The two young pilots were left with a military officer that looked over fifty years old. His overweight body, darker skin color, bald head, scarce eyebrows and shaved face, made him look like a brown egg. The man got on his feet, he was a lot taller than expected, towering over the two young men.
"Gentlemen, I am major Ernest Zuleiman Dasano, welcome to the Crow nest. You have already made it clear that you are committed to the program, no one with doubts would have gone through all that pain. In this facilities you will be trained to be pilot of the most formidable weapon ever designed by human engineering. But before that, you must sign this."
The major passed a few documents, a ten years contract, a non disclosure agreement and a few others. The two men signed up. The major pushed a blue button that was in a small box to the right of the computer over the desk. A few seconds later a bald female officer came in, the blue uniform and the badge carried by all pilots announced who she was.
"Sir!" the women saluted.
"Gentlemen, this is Captain Virna Liss Paniari, she will train you. Virna, this guys are the new recruits for training, you know what to do"
"Yes, sir!"
"Follow me" the woman signaled to the two young men to follow her with her hand.
The trip to the barracks was longer than expected, they just sat there in silence while the military jeep took them to a location far away from the administrative buildings. The dull buildings in the distance didn't call any attention, but the giant mechanical artifacts next to them did. The two giants moved near the barracks and positioned themselves at each side, like if swallowed by the earth they started descending until they got out of sight. Finally the jeep stopped.
The guard at the door greeted them with a salute, to which the woman and the two young pilots responded.
"The new recruits"
The guard read through the documents handed over by captain Virna; after making sure the two men where indeed the ones in the files, he allowed them in. Inside the building things where a lot different from what Samuel and Hector expected. Two men and a woman were walking around naked in a spacious living room. They were bald and quite thin, just skin and bones.
"Nice shoot, asshole!" complained one of the guys.
"Come on Vin, cut him some slack, it was a bad angle and he only grazed your Exo anyway" the girl interjected.
"What? you need a pair of tits to defend you? Jimbo" Vin mocked the other guy.
"don't fucking call me Jimbo, and at least my aim is better than yours"
"Who cares about your aiming, hand to hand combat is a lot better to deal with the Tencts and I am a lot better than you at that"
"Attention!" Captain Virna yelled.
The three naked soldiers turned around and after seeing her, they stood at attention.
"Why the hell are you guys not in the showers?" The captain asked.
"We just came back from a training session ma'am" The naked girl answered.
"Cut the crap Nancy, the exercise ended half an hour ago, so I will ask again, why are you guys not in the showers?"
"You already know why Ma'am" answered Vin, with a wry face.
"I have already told you lot many times, those stimulants are not to be used for practice purpose, how many?"
"Two doses each, Ma'am" answered Nancy.
"Well, if you do something dumb, you get a dumb punishment. Get to the shower, now!"
"Oh, fuck!" complained Vin.
As the three of them walked towards the showers the Captain signaled Samuel and Hector to follow. The naked pilots positioned themselves in the showers under the captain hawk eye like vigilance.
"Turn the cold water on" ordered the captain.
"Come on, captain, we just wanted to train at the top of our skill" Vin tried to make up an excuse.
"Turn the cold water on!" repeated the captain in an commanding tone while smiling.
The three pilots moved the tap and the cold water poured out, as soon as the water touched their skin they fell to the ground screaming, Hector and Samuel watched in confusion.
"There is a few stimulants to increase concentration during combat, the problem is it has a few side effect; one of them is a hypersensitivity of the body thermal receptor, right now is like they are taking a shower with acid" the captain explained.
"I hope you take note. This is not infantry or regular air force, our rules are a lot more flexible, but that doesn't mean you can do what ever you want"
The woman didn't pay too much attention to the new recruits and just showed them to their rooms.
"Individual rooms?" asked Hector. "This army stuff sounds easier than what I expected"
The captain started to laugh.
"You boys know nothing. This is but a small gesture towards pilots; you guys remember your implants activations at the hospital?"
The two young men turned pale.
"Yes, every day of training will be similar, with time you will develop some tolerance to pain, and some addiction to stimulants and painkillers, your daily lives will be miserable. We won't push you too much when you are not piloting an exo, but when the time to get into a cockpit comes, we expect you to do your duty, no matter what, is that clear?"
The two men looked at each other.
"Is that clear!?" the woman yelled.
"Yes ma'am!" they answered in a strong shout.
"Get comfortable, your personal things have already been taken from your homes, tomorrow, hell awaits"
The captain let the two men go into their rooms and left the barracks. She wasn't lying, their personal belongings were already there. Instead of the usual military bunks from the traditional barracks, they had a comfortable bed. Instead of a locker room; they had a full wardrobe. The only thing that was common for everyone was the bathroom. The two men started unpacking their stuff and making the rooms theirs, among the things brought to the room, there was some documents from the army, an user manual for the training exo they were going to pilot and some other basic information. An hour later the pilots came out from the showers, they were wrapped in towels while trembling. Still half wet they sat in the sofa in the living room.
"Fuck, fuck, is wearing off!" complained Vin, as he trembled.
"Hey, what is going on?" asked Samuel.
"Hey kid, do you have something?" asked Jim.
"Something?" Samuel was confused.
"Painkillers men, drugs, I will take anything, even paracetamol, just give me something" said Vin in a desperate tone.
"Sorry, I got nothing"
"Then fuck off" Vin just wrapped the towel around his body and walked towards his room slowly.
Samuel looked at Hector.
"They have withdrawal syndrome, they got high and now they are paying the price, I have seen it many time in the yonkis back in the neighborhood, they are addicts" Hector explained with some disgust.
"Yonkis!?, yonkis!? We are pilots, you don't know what is like, every day, it hurts, it hurts so bad you wanna kill yourself, the drugs give us some relieve, but... never mind dip shit. Tomorrow we will see how long you can last without a shoot of the good stuff, forget about morphine, they will put you into something a lot better, then you will understand." Jim got up and left as well, Nancy followed behind, everyone went to their room.
"I won't end up like that" said Samuel with confidence.
"Me neither" Hector agreed.
They went back to their rooms, Samuel looked at his old collection of exoskeleton toys, took the scale model of the Executioner and smiled.
"This isn't what I expected grandpa, but I am on my way to be a pilot"
Samuel left the toy to the side and took the user manual for the training exo and started reading.
"Third generation exoskeleton, model RS 3.4. Code name: The scholar. Made in Italy. General multipurpose exoskeleton for pilot training.
Specs:
Height: sixteen feet. Weight: fourteen tons.
Power core: Exchangeable electric polymeric power cells.
Autonomy: Four hours.
Internal structure: Titanium based frame.
External armor: Reinforced aluminum.
Locomotion: Electromagnetic Graphene/cobalt/chromium alloy, multi layered artificial muscle fiver, top speed 85 km/h.
Flight capability: None for the basic model. A flying module can be adapted. Basic flying module powered by 75 LEAP-2B engine, Max speed: 822 km/h (Mach 0.82)
Reaction time: 103 ms.
Weapons: Main training meele weaponry, unit is adaptable to the weapon needed . Auxiliary: Mounted autocanon 88 mm Euro rounds.
Samuel read whatever he could about his future training exoskeleton, it was a bit disappointed, compared to the real deal this was a toy; however, this was expected, it was a training Exoskeleton after all. He kept reading, an hour later he fell asleep.