The night passed by and I arranged for Martin to stay in the hall. Duke Bastion humored me. Like he said, we were taken to the naval base south of the capitol. There, in the dock, was the frigate and the mechas. I took the time sailing down the river to allocate my skill points. I was now Level 23. Since I was going to be an Omega pilot, I put the skills in those trees. I had 7 to spend. I completed the Escape perk. It allowed the escape pod to be stocked with a full gun rack, complete with ammo and magazines for all the guns on the left side of the cockpit. on the right was a medical shelf complete with medicines and surgical supplies. The final star in Escape made the whole cockpit it's own aircraft that the Omega could fly. I put a second star in Detatchment and two in Safeguard. I wanted to prevent blowback as much as possible during the combat. I would be the one flying the escape pod out. The rest went into Sheer Steel. I hoped it would be enough to cause a good show before we went down for the count. It had to be, because it was all I had.
We boarded the frigate and began sailing down the river. It took two days before we got to the coast. Once we got in to open ocean we went East. Umamu was to the west of Yejolli. If we went there, we would be caught and fail the mission immediately. Cadini was two countries down and we made it in a day. We arrived at a port town and prepared to attack. We made our preparations on the ship to bombard the town with artillery from the ship while we were fighting from above. I got in the cockpit of the light blue and silver Elite mecha with my partner. Finn paused me before I could start booting up. "Are you sure about this?" he asked. I smirked and said "It's too late to ask me that now." I said. I then turned around and closed my eyes. I grunted as if a heavy weight was laid on my back. In the academy simulators, you could choose the load out so that there was not stress on strain on the young pilot using more than they could handle. In real battle, the pilots had a specific loadout and the pilot had to expend mental energy and focus maintaining it all.
Mechas like this had Jet Power and Eagle Wings as the mode of flight. I did not have any stars in that so it was going to be a major drain. It also had retractable blades in the legs. That was another thing that I had no stars in to adapt to. The inclusion of extra rockets and a tactical nuke was another drain. I had to do the booting up minigame. Calm made the minigame slow down, and my Boot Up skill shortened the path. Even then, when I was on the course, it was a fast as the simulations in the academy. I also felt the weight on me increase as I got closer and closer to the end. It took me a full 10 minutes to fully boot up the mecha. I was panting and already out of breath. I still had to connect the various weapons and the energy field to the cockpit. I was panting like a dog by the time I was done. I really needed to put more stars in the trees. It was then that I felt Finn rub my back. "You can do this." was all he said. It was all he needed to say. I focused and bore the weight as best as I could. It was Finn to operate the mecha from here in combat.
On Finn's order, the ship, was armed, aimed and prepared to fire on the town. It was manned by convicts and hastily promoted officers. They were essentially pawns the kingdom was throwing away for the mission. When Finn gave the final order, he used the rockets to lift off the ground. The wings extended to allow him to change the direction of mecha and fly. We flew over the city and Finn began firing the rockets down on the city. Explosions filled the city as they hit their marks. The tactical nukes in the city caused even more damage and destruction. Finn focused the nukes on the parks and other open areas. Since it was so quick, there was no chance for the city to mount any response. The ship was already firing on the ships and people on the docks and pier. Causalities must have been in the hundreds. Since Finn had blown his load so quickly, the weight and strain from maintaining it all was lifted from me. I could not hold back my moan and I heard Finn chuckle as I rolled my shoulders and shook my hips in relief. I guessed I was giving him quite the show.
