With all their equipment in perfect working order, there wasn’t a lot for the crew to do until they reached their next port of call. But laziness brings sluggishness when it is time to fight, so Max began to make up a schedule for training that would keep everyone in good shape while they were in transit.
The Kepler Military had a training regimen, but it was rudimentary at best, and barely maintained the physique of most Pilots. It wouldn’t be hard to top that, and in fact, Max had been working with a much better plan than the default one the military provided ever since he first left Kepler Terminus.
[Mandatory group training from 0800 to 1200 beginning tomorrow.] Max informed the rest of the First Battalion, then started in on the planning.
They didn’t have many VR simulators on board, only a handful from the maintenance team for troubleshooting, so their efforts would have to be in the hangar and not in virtual space. They had been with him long enough now that their hand-to-hand combat skills were getting better, and it wouldn’t take long to build an obstacle course. Add those to the exercise equipment that was already set up and they should be able to keep the Battalion in top shape.
The Martial Arts training was very popular with the Pilots, giving them something other than simple exercises to work on their dexterity and speed, areas where most Pilots were lacking. Like Max, the majority had a Strength Primary thanks to their system, which was great until they hit diminishing returns at about 150 percent over the base.
That made the Alpha Ranked Systems physically extremely strong, on par with a combat Cyborg, but their flexibility often suffered from neglect, other than their fingers, which most remembered to train for control speed.
In theory that was enough to improve their piloting skills, but Max had realized that being able to move more than your hands quickly was a great benefit and did much more to improve your reaction speeds.
Being used to moving the whole body more quickly trained the mind to move the mecha more quickly and process complex movement routines more naturally, which improved firing accuracy while on the move.
There wasn’t much he could add to the routine, it was pretty well optimized already, so he started looking for more ways to pass the time.
The cockpit of the Enduring Rage was still pretty plain, so that became his next project. They spend almost all their time in the Mecha, so Max thought that it would be a nice little surprise to personalize the space before Nico returned from her assignment on the bridge of the Dutchman.
What could he do though? Max had never once in his life tried to decorate a room, much less decorate a room to suit him and Nico at the same time. He could maybe change the color of the walls. That might make it feel more like home, or give it a more relaxing feeling.
Max pulled up articles on color theory, and decoration, trying to decide what to do with the space that they had.
According to the article, green was for calm, and yellow was for positivity. But the walls were already a drab shade of yellowish green. That didn’t help him at all, since the official advice was absolutely hideous.
Even if it was the most efficient, it was still ugly.
He didn’t have anything to hang on the walls to “Make it His Own” like the article suggested, so that was out as well. He also wasn’t going to arrange dozens of throw pillows and knickknacks around the Mecha. He wouldn’t even do that to his own room, though Mooney had a bunch of stuff around her room and it definitely suited her personality.
After an hour of reading the articles, Max was starting to think that whoever wrote this drivel was an absolute moron.
It was when he gave up on changing the room and decided to do a physical check of the systems that the idea came to him. The wall looked pretty cool with the panel removed, showing off the gears and hydraulics of the arm assembly that were behind it.
That was highly unsafe during operation, but a single panel replaced with clear aluminum might make for a suitable accent window. Max sent the order to the material printer in their bay and climbed down to go collect his updated part, then added a magnetic hanging rod and two pieces of cloth to the order.
Twenty minutes later, and after a bit of tinkering with the lighting, Max had a backlit window in the food preparation area, overlooking the arm mechanics, with a pair of curtains tied off at the sides.
Now it felt more like the kitchen at Dave’s house, whose window overlooked the brick of the building next to them. That was a huge change to the feeling of the room. It went from an enclosed box with a large screen on the wall to a studio apartment with a crappy view.
With the two piloting seats moved out of the way and rotated back to face the main area of the cockpit, it felt even more like an apartment, and Max began to see the potential.
[When you get back to the barracks, bring me two seat covers for the Enduring Rage. You can pick the patterns.] Max messaged Nico, knowing that she should be back soon.
She didn’t message back, but Nico never missed messages, so she would have the seat covers for him when she got here, he was certain.
She did one better than he had requested and even brought a rug for the floor, which would attach to the cargo securement loops, so it wouldn’t move while in motion.
The seat covers that she picked were black and soft, with their names stitched into the headrests while the Carpet was a collection of gray shades that went well with the military drab of the walls, at least in Max’s estimation.
“I like it, the window is a nice touch, feels more like home that way.” Nico commended him as he finished setting up the room.
“Yeah, it feels less like a box and more like a room now. The lights behind the window were just the thing, and the viewport is actually functional since it lets you see the state of the right arm mechanisms without having to leave the cockpit.” Max agreed.
Nico snapped a photo of the room from the side access door and smiled at Max. “I should show Klinger. He was going on earlier about how he was changing his cockpit to be less drab.”
The other Colonel messaged back seconds later, raving about the window in the food preparation area and asking for design plans. It was only one replacement clear panel and a set of curtains, so Klinger was off to make a replacement right away.
He had already repainted the interior in sand and sky blue, making his cockpit feel more like a beach, in his opinion, and the window was the final touch it needed. Klinger didn’t leave the mechanisms behind the panel open though, he built a small diorama and placed it behind the glass, making it look like you were actually looking outside.
The Crusader Class Pilots all thought they were a bit odd, but it was definitely a better environment than the default interior had been. Plus, it was all within regulation, so they wouldn’t need to change it back after this deployment when they would presumably be inspected by another ship’s maintenance staff.
Max laid down for a nap, catching up on sleep before training in the morning, ship time, and woke up to the smell of coffee and bacon filling the cockpit.
“Oh, now that is just torture. That had better be for me.” Max muttered as he sat up in bed and looked over at the other side of the cockpit, where Nico was making food in nothing but an apron.
“What exactly are you wearing?” He stammered as Nico danced to the low music she had playing over the speakers.
“An apron. I didn’t want to get greasy, I just washed. Here, drink the coffee and the food will be ready in a few seconds.” Nico laughed, handing him a mug.
Looking more closely, the meal was the Bacon and Egg omelet ration pack, but she had pulled it out of its pouch before frying it in a pan with a can of boiled potatoes that she had spiced up to what he hoped was edibility.
“Very domestic. I am impressed. You even make good coffee, but where did you get the spices?” Max asked.
“I grabbed them from the kitchens aboard Abraham Kepler before we left. They were better stocked than what we took with us. The pilots officially request that we find real food on the next battlefield by the way. The Battalion Kitchen is pretty good, but as you know, the meals are on a two-week rotation, and everyone has them memorized.” Nico informed him.
“One thing at a time. We need to get everyone back to daily training first and take their minds off the boredom. Once they have things to do they won’t focus so much on memorizing the kitchen menu.”
They had to skirt the edge of Kepler space, then turn to the Galactic west and pass a few small nations and a section of empty space near the Rae System to get to their destination and it would still be almost a week before they arrived.