The room that Maximiler had stepped into was a changing room. Racks of piloting suits of different sizes ran along both sides of the wall. He could hear the sound of a running shower somewhere in the room, but he wasn't bothered to explore and find out where it was located. He hurriedly pulled a suit that resembled his body size from the rack before slipping it on. The suit whirred before it abruptly slimmed, hugging his body contours tightly. A light, cloth-like material slipped over his head, completely covering up his skin so no one will be able to recognize him.
A small ear bud in the ear of the suit chimed, linking up a small scale piloting interface with his neural network. He vaguely felt the sensation of being able to extend his senses beyond his body, a sure sign that meant his piloting ability wouldn't be too bad.
With a small huff, he made his way through the rest of the room, arriving at the other end that led to the mech hangar bay. He stepped through the automatic doors, exposing himself to the whirring and banging sounds of the various mechanical units making their way through the bay in order to reach the testing facility. Over at the far left end of the bay, the special unit stood, powered down.
'Not for long.' He thought, briskly making his way over to it. Thanks to the coverage his piloting suit gave him, he was able to avoid drawing attention for once, blending in with the various other pilots in their own piloting suits. He quickly reached the side of the mech where a floating platform was waiting for the pilot to climb onto it so that it could lift the pilot into the cockpit of the mech.
Maximiler stepped onto it and was lifted to the opened up cockpit located in the chest section of the mech. He hopped into the cockpit, taking a minute to appreciate the high tech internals of the war machine. He had seen much better when he was aboard the many starships he had been assigned to in his past life, but he still took the time to appreciate the scene.
"Right. It's time to show my hand." He muttered to himself before sliding the piloting helmet over his head. A slim neural interface aligned itself over the back of his neck before inserting extremely tiny needles into his neck, linking up his mind with the machine.
A small mental pocket formed in the depths of Maximiler's mind. To any new mech pilot, this pocket would shock them, but he was already familiar with the effects of piloting mechs. He mentally probed this mental pocket with him mind before entering it. A transformation took place in the depths of his mind. His field of vision had switched with that of the mech, giving him the illusion that he was the mech. This was the combination of Man and Machine.
He raised the hand of the mech, flexing it for a moment before a command rand through the speakers in the mech hangar.
"Prototype XX-02, please make your way to the testing grounds. Prototype XX-02, please make your way to the testing grounds."
The straps that locked the mech in place opened up, allowing him full range of motion. He tentatively took a step forward. When everything responded positively, he then slowly made his way down the designated route that led to the testing ground that had been specially prepared for the experimental unit.
He willed the machine to move forward, guiding its every movement, down to the tiniest detail. If he were to get properly evaluated, then his piloting rank should be quite high.
In this age f mechs and starships, mech pilots were abundant, but short in quality. Roughly 20% percent of the entire human population was qualified to pilot mechs without suffering serious backlash, but the majority of this 20% had a poor receptivity towards the high end machines, thereby hindering their piloting skill. Only a meager 3% out of this amount were able to perform well enough to keep mechs a mainstream product in the galaxy.
Because of the varying performance of mech pilots, a grading system had been put into place to evaluate mech pilots. Every registered mech pilot had a grade that remained relevant throughout their entire career of piloting mechs. The grades listed from Grade F, which stood for an absolute incompetence and lack of ability to pilot these huge war machines. This grading system scale up all the way to Grade A, which was the pinnacle of piloting ability. Mech pilots of the Grade A standards were mostly hoarded by military powers and powerful organizations. It was basically impossible to find a mech pilot of such standards within the private sector.
Aside from the standardized scaling that rose from F to A, there existed a higher piloting plane. This plane was categorized as the X Grade. Every mech pilot that managed to reach this legendary threshold was exceptional in every sense of the word. With mechs that were tailor made for them, they were able to perform amazing feats.
The X Grade was split into three realms. These were the X Grade, XX Grade and XXX Grade, with the XXX Grade being able to challenge even mighty warships.
The only reason why no one actually fought warships with the X realm pilots was because it technically wasn't worth the price. Training a pilot to reach the X realm was extremely expensive, and there was no guarantee that the pilot will even be able to cross that threshold. Therefore, every mech pilot that stepped into that realm was treasured by the USC and any other force that was able to field them.
Maximiler remembered that in his past life, he had capped out at the B Grade before being transferred to commandeer a fleet of Heavy Frigates for a few years. He had never had the chance to properly polish his skills since he then had to split his attention between sharpening his commanding skills and his starship operating skills.
He walked out of the hangar, coming into a wide open field with several distant targets and some other mechs standing by.
"Good day, Pilot. Today is going to be the same as the last testing phase. We'll start with target practice before the move on to combat practice and then, we will test out some other technical aspects of the special unit." An operator spoke through the speakers fixed around the testing grounds. At the far right of the field, a small viewing center was located high up where it would be difficult to reach through normal means. It was even higher than the mech he was currently in.
"Very well, then. Let's begin the testing phase."
A low whirring sound spread across the field and the dormant practice targets came to life as power was pumped into them. The circular platforms then began to zip around in an erratic manner, making it difficult to pin them down.
"First test: Targeting System testing phase."