The Mech Touch

The first proper connection and activation of the Mental Simulation Training System proceeded without any obvious points of concerns.

Even though this was the first spiritual simulation system that Ves and Vulcan had ever crafted through their own efforts, its operation and degree of accuracy were not that different from conventional simulation programs.

This was no surprise. Despite the need to develop a framework for spiritual software and spiritual programming language from scratch, Vulcan was adept in both conventional programming and spiritual engineering.

As a spiritual entity that was unbound by the organic limitations of a weak and frail human body, Vulcan's productivity was frighteningly high!

Though there were a lot of spiritual entities who were stronger than him in an absolute sense, Ves doubted that his other spiritual products such as Helena or the Superior Mother could catch up to his incarnation in this regard.

This was because Ves designed Vulcan to be a creator and a maker of products!

True to his mythological source of inspiration, Vulcan traded a lot of direct combat power in order to become the ultimate spiritual artisan. The amount of design assistance that he could provide was incalculable!

Ves wanted to slap his forehead again. How come it took so long for him to realize such a simple fact?

His incarnation functioned similarly to a clone of himself that was crossed with a supercomputer!

Ves even had the feeling that as long as he had access to Vulcan, he could design mechs from beginning to end without ever accessing his implant or a single electronic system!

This was an amazing advantage!

Even now, Vulcan was continuing to develop the MSTS further. While he had already made sure that the spiritual simulation program was able to run realistic battle scenarios involving mechs, he still needed to add a lot of variables in order to make the simulation more complete.

Vulcan still needed to include additional factors such as different battlefields, additional mech models, starships, exobeasts and alien tech to the database. Though Ves had access to a sufficient amount of data on those elements, it still took time for his other self to convert them into spiritual 'files' and properly incorporate them into the MSTS.

Fortunately, the lack of variety did not hamper the efforts to test the viability and safety of the current iteration of the MSTS. Even though it could only simulate battles between relatively simple mechs for now, this was what mech cadets practiced with all of the time.

"The first test has concluded." Ves announced as the prototype Tutor Project pulled out of the MSTS.

The test pilot that had just sparred against another Tutor Project in the spiritual simulation had used his rich battle experience to trick the opponent into overreaching.

Though the Tutor Project model was considerably faster and more agile than the original Chiron model, if both of them made a serious error of judgment, then that would probably spell their doom!

Ves smirked for a moment. The Quint may have learned much about piloting mechs, but his battle partners were predominantly younger mech pilots that relied on an abundance of talent and skill to achieve superiority on the battlefield.

The test pilot that completed the first test was not as talented but possessed decades of combat experience. A wily soldier that had survived many battlefields was not so easy to outmatch!

"I am glad to see that your MSTS is functioning properly, but this is only the beginning. Let us repeat this process with other test subjects." Yarach Stimmons suggest. "I must understand the baseline of this new simulation system before we can test your innovation under more challenging circumstances."

Ves and the MTA research team conducted test after test. The parameters of the mech and its mech pilot while both of them remained connected to the MSTS looked normal enough. It was all quite boring but that wasn't necessarily bad.

The reason for that was that despite the strange nature of the MSTS, it did not behave much differently than a conventional similar program, at least on the surface.

It was not unusual for pilots to use a mech to connect to a simulation program. The popular and ubiquitous simulator pods were developed as a cheaper and more convenient alternative to them for the purpose of facilitating training.

Ves even got bored after a while. While he was glad that the MSTS did not exhibit any serious bugs or generate any dangerous circumstances, the test pilots that experienced this new training solution for the first time did not undergo any drastic experiences either.

Most of that was because the training scenarios that the MSTS put them through were too basic. Ves expected the test subjects to endure a lot more stimulation once they trialed the more intensive battle scenarios.

Once the first round of experiments came to an end, Ves and his mecher helpers analyzed the data and made a number of preliminary conclusions.

"First of all, all signs look good so far." Stimmons spoke to Ves and his team. "Although the nature of the new simulation program is anything but conventional, it operates close enough to the simulators that we are familiar with that the test subjects largely behave as if they are undergoing a conventional virtual training session. There are only a few minor deviations that provide interesting data points."

The man waved his hand. A projection appeared to his side that showed a semi-transparent image of a human head. The image showed off a model of a brain where numerous points were lit up with red.

"This is the state of the brain of a typical trained mech pilot when interfacing with a generic combat mech. The areas in red indicate the parts of the central nervous system that are often strained over the course of piloting a mech under normal circumstances. The load and intensity of this strain can vary greatly depending on the mech model and the circumstances it is operating under. In general, third-class mechs are considerably less strenuous while first-class mechs induce an enormous burden that is especially difficult to endure for unaugmented potentates with lower-than-average genetic aptitudes."

There was an intricate and complicated relationship between the strain that a mech pilot endured and the mech he was interfacing with. Ves only knew the basics but did not pretend to understand all of the variables and relationships between them. This was solely the domain of neural interface specialists.

What Ves did know was that strain was a reflection on how well a mech pilot was able to cope with the flow of data that passed through the man-machine connection.

The reason why first-class mechs produced incomparably greater strain was because they not only produced a lot more data as output, but also required a lot of data as input from the mech pilot!

One of the reasons why the higher grades of genetic aptitude was so valued by the mech community was because those at the top could control their machines at a much finer level!

In cases where the mechs, skills and combat experience of two opposing mech pilots were equal, the one with superior genetic aptitude often gained an edge over the opposition! This was because the pilot was able to process more data and exert greater control over a mech!

From what Ves had learned, it was only when a mech pilot surpassed the extraordinary threshold that these limitations no longer applied. Every expert pilot's capacity to process data was expanded by at least an order of magnitude.

This was also the only way they could pilot much more complicated expert mechs that could fry the brain of any ordinary mech pilot!

Stimmons waved his hand again, causing a few of the red areas to fade or disappear entirely.

"This is the state of a brain when interfacing with a typical commercial-grade simulator pod. Do you see the difference? Compared to actual mechs, simulator pods produce less strain because of two main reasons. First, a simulation program's fidelity towards reality is always flawed, so virtual battles can never produce the full range of stimulation of actual battles. Second, the developers of these training systems have to abide by strict safety limitations that artificially restrict the degree of immersion. If these safety limits are not present, then the pilots in question risk getting harmed without ever stepping onto a real battlefield."

Ves raised his hand. "I have a question, Mr. Stimmons. Why is the degree of immersion capped for these devices? Isn't it better to raise it a little so that mech pilots get more involved in the virtual battles and gain greater stimulation as a result?"

"No." The MTA Journeyman shook his head. "You are not the first mech designer to ask this question, but there are good reasons to limit the immersion of simulator pods. Aside from preventing mech pilots from enduring excessive strain and suffering from unneeded injury feedback, we do not want mech pilots to become too acclimated to the false reality of a virtual battle environment."

"Uhhh…"

"As you know, Mr. Larkinson, typical simulation programs are only capable of modeling reality to a range from 80 percent to 99 percent. No matter how close they try to mimic reality, they can never achieve the most ideal state. What do you think will happen when a mech pilot who has spent thousands of hours in training with a simulator pod that only reached 80 percent realism steps onto an actual battlefield for the first time?"

"That pilot will fumble and perform well below expectations because the habits he has trained in the virtual simulations no longer work as well in reality. The disparity in physics and other interactions are so great that it is like the difference between fighting in space and fighting in the air of a terrestrial planet!"

Stimmons nodded. "Exactly. Do you see why our Association has mandated that every simulator pod and simulation system must restrict the degree of immersion to a shallower limit? While we are aware that mech pilots do not get as much out of their virtual training sessions, the greater degree of separation also prevents them from taking their practice environment too seriously. This lowers the chances of learning bad habits. Of course, it is also necessary for the individuals to pilot physical mechs in reality in order to build up and maintain their good habits."

This was why live practice sessions were essential to mech pilots! If simulations could provide them with all of the improvement they needed, then there was much less reason for them to sortie with their mechs!

After Stimmons explained a few other essential differences between interfacing with a real mech and interfacing with a simulator pod, he waved his hand a third time, causing a different image of a brain to appear on the projection.

"This… is the overall state of the brains of our test subjects when they interfaced with the prototype while engaging the MSTS. Do you see how this image differs between the last two that I have shown?"

Ves had quite a good memory and it was effortless for him to use his implant to make direct comparisons between all three images.

His eyes lit up as he noticed the differences and realized what it could possibly mean!

"The state of a mech pilot's brain when connected to the MSTS is close to the state of piloting an actual mech!"

The MTA Journeyman smiled. "That is correct! This is in spite of the fact that the neural interface of the Tutor Project is a safer model that is specifically designed to be a safe choice for growing mech cadets. While I must gather more data to be certain, my preliminary conclusion of why our test subjects exhibit this degree of strain is because the MSTS mirrors reality at least as well as the top simulators available to humanity!"

In other words, the test subjects all fought as if they were truly fighting for their lives!

This was a fantastic result! The simulated environments produced by the MSTS reminded the test subjects of how they fought in reality.

With 'special effects' such as glows to stir their emotions during a simulated battle, it was easy for them to get invested in the false battles.

After all, with Helena's minute's influence, the test subjects all felt that dying in the illusionary battlefield would actually get them killed for real!