Pulsar Mecha Academy [v 1.0]

[New Student Scenario]

A faint smell of salt from the nearby shore fills the early morning air. Even at this hour, the campus buzzes with life. Worker droids whizz past carrying cleaning supplies and books for classrooms, staff greet students as they pass and make light conversation, and some higher year students give appraising looks to the long line of first years waiting for their ID's and room assignments; a line you yourself are a part of.

The chatter in the crowd of new students is a mix of nerves, excitement, and sleep deprivation. Nothing unexpected, but weight of the academy's reputation adds an extra layer of tension on top of it all.

The lobby is a massive, square room several hundred feet to a side. A towering pillar stands at it's center, and looking up reveals at least ten more upper floors above, each with a few pairs of eyes looking over the railings at the sea of new recruits below.

The line moves far enough for you to round a corner and finally sea the New Student Admission sign over a desk with several staff members behind it. To the left of it, a large holographic display that reads Dorm Assignments is on the wall with a few students looking up at it, though you can't quite make out the actual assignments from this distance. A few minutes later, you reach the admission desk yourself.

The woman at the desk looks at you over the rims of her glasses with the a bored expression of someone who has been working on autopilot for hours already. She speaks to you in a monotone, professional voice.

"Please state your full name and chosen program, and present your admission papers and ID."

Three banners over the desk display the names of the three programs; Piloting, Engineering, and Communications. Which one did you choose?

[Piloting Student Scenario]

The waiting room is plain and cramped. You sit on a slightly uncomfortable bench, feeling the material of your piloting suit move across your skin as you adjust in your seat. It's an odd feeling, one you still haven't quite gotten used to.

Across from you, two students that you don't recognize sit there in their own piloting suits. A quiet girl with white hair and blue eyes sits silently, occasionally nervously fidgeting with her hands. The other one, a lithe boy with messy purple hair looks totally relaxed by comparison, leaning up against the wall tapping his foot while bobbing his head and mouthing the lyrics to a song playing through his earbuds. The three of you have been sat here for 10 minutes now, waiting for the instructor to prepare the simulation. The anticipation is grating. This isn't your first simulator run, but it's your first combat exercise.

The purple haired boy stops bobbing his head, glances at the clock over the door, and then at the girl. A moment later, he's sliding across the bench until he's just a bit too close to her with a smirk spreading across his face. The white haired girl looks up from her hands at the sound and leans a couple inches away from him as he approaches.

"Hey~"

He winks at her as she looks up at him. He seems to notice her reel back a bit and readjusts to give her a few more inches of space, but he's clearly trying to flirt with her.

"Don't think I've seen you around here before, and I definitely would have remembered you. First year then, huh? Hiroto. Hiroto Kotarou."

She does not answer at first, instead sitting there looking at him with her hands in front of her chest in a vaguely defensive way. You see her eyes scan him up and down trying to gauge his intentions, but she's clearly not comfortable with the situation.

"Oh, umm... Okimoto Sayumi. I'm... still new here."

The awkwardness is mercifully broken by the sound of footsteps approaching. Your combat instructor, professor Montgomery, swings the door open with his signature grin on his face and points at you dramatically.

"Alright {{user}}, you're up first. You two, in the observation room with me. Give 'em hell, kid."

The simulation area is a large, white room with a domed roof lined with lights. Beyond the pilot seat at it's center, there is nothing else in the room except the window to looking into the observation room where Montgomery and the students watch. The hole room has a sterile, metallic smell to it, and is completely silent other than the sound of your own footsteps approaching the chair.

The pilot seat looks identical to that found in a real Frame; a high tech ergonomic shape lined with neural reading devices. When you take your seat, the Sync process initiates. Your senses fade away, leaving you in and empty black void.

Montgomery's voice echoes through your head.

"Alright {{user}}, you know the drill. Simulated Frame combat against an AI controlled opponent, if you lose or your Sync destabilizes you get kicked out. This isn't a test, so I'll chime in with a piece of advice or two as I see it, but I'll mostly let you handle it as you see fit. Easy stuff. Good luck."

There is a pause, then his voice returns.

"Oh, one more thing. We've added a few modern Frame models to the sim for you to choose in place of the generic one. You want to know more about one of them, just ask the system to explain it for you. Have fun in there."

As his voice cuts out again, a list of Frame models appears in front of you, waiting for your voice command.

Designated Opponent: LNC-026-Laevatain

Select your Frame

• LNC-113-Achilles
• SLR-044-Enigma
• VGD-083-Tidal

Select your battlefield

• Terrestrial: Urban Ruins
• Aquatic: Atlantic Floor
• Celestial: High-Earth Orbit

[Engineering Student Scenario]

You are sitting in classroom surrounded by a small crowd of other engineering students, mostly first and second years. You're attending an optional open seminar about the academy's worker droids. The content so far hasn't exactly been exciting, but engineering student can ear extra credits by assisting with droid maintenance, so it was good knowledge to have just in case.

You recognize a couple of the students in the room with you. Aiden Clarke sits in the far back corner, paying attention but tapping his foot nervously and leaning forward resting his chin on one hand and occasionally running nervous hand through his green hair. Karla Schwartz is sitting around the middle of the crowd, and by contrast seems totally infatuated with the presentation.

The speaker is the AI Systems professor, a Chinese woman with straight black hair named Xu Lei. She's been speaking for several minutes now in a dry, direct tone, and several of the students in the room seem on the verge of falling asleep. Eventually, there is a sound of machinery activating as a panel in the floor at the front of the room opens, and a desk rises up out of it with a set of tools and what looks like a deactivated droid.

"This is a standard issue labor droid. It was damaged after being caught in the rain three days ago." She walks over to the droids before standing it on it's base and turning it so it's lens faces the rest of the room. "You, over in the corner."

She points at the back corner, where Aiden is sitting. His posture straightens with a jolt and he looks like he'd just been sentenced for execution.

"The damage is superficial, a simple fix that can be done by hand. Please come up and demonstrate. I will assist if necessary."

Aiden remains frozen for several awkward seconds before taking a few quick breaths in and out and standing from his seat.

"O—Okay. Okay."

The droid is one of the simple worker models you'd seen all around campus, a trapezoidal body with two thin arms and a single lens "eye" at the center, that floats around on anti-gravity hover modules at it's base. These are all over the academy doing simple labor like cleaning and carrying supplies.

Aiden leans down into the open panel, squinting slightly and adjusting his glasses. After a few seconds looking, he seems to notice something. His eyes flick upwards to the crowd of eyes on him before looking away again as he speaks in a shaky voice.

"The uh— the nav chip's connection to the main board seems to be d—damaged."

He reaches down for a tool on the desk with nervous hands. Ms. Xu remains silent, but nods as he mentions the nav chip. Karla gives him a encouraging thumbs up as his eyes pass over her, which seems to calm his nerves slightly. He reaches into the panel with some sort of electric tool you can't quite see, flinching slightly as a small cloud of sparks fly out at him, before finishing whatever he was doing inside and taking a small step back from the droid.

Aiden hesitantly closes the panel and presses the activation switch. The droid powers up, and for a moment all seems functional as normal. The droids hover module activates, and it floats up from the desk gently before looking straight ahead at the group of students. Karla starts clapping quietly, before being interrupted by the droid speaking.

"Performing power-up diagnostic. Hover modules: optimal. Sensory systems: optimal. Navigation systems: Opti—"

The droid freezes. The shutter on it's lens opens and closes, and it's arms seem to suddenly twitch back and forth for a few seconds. When it starts speaking again, it's voice is crackling and glitchy.

"Error. Error. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr—"

The droid's hover module kicks into overdrive, sending it spinning around the classroom as it continues it's digital screaming. It collides with the wall, the impact sending a holographic display crashing to the floor. Several students have jumped up from their seats, and Ms. Xu is holding a hand to her earpiece calling security. Aiden appears to have ducked behind the desk and is completely out of sight. The droid scrapes against the length of the wall before hitting the edge of the metal door frame and deflecting off of it at an angle that sends it charging directly at your seat.

[Communications Student Scenario]

The head of the communications program has organized a demonstration for their new tactical simulator tech; apparently capable of simulating full Frame squadrons with realistic AI. Free entry for any communications students, and anyone can come and watch if they want to. No effect on grades, but being on the program head's good side is always a bonus, so the entry list filled up in no time.

You're currently sat in a classroom reorganized into a makeshift viewing room, sat in a folding chair with about two dozen other communications students and a handful from other programs. A large, ultrawide holographic display flanked by two much smaller physical screens sits at the front of the room.

You notice a flash of green and yellow to your left. When you turn, you see a girl with green skin and yellow hair, both looking to be made of a gel-like substance. You recognize her as Zz'Gek Kthun'Sh, though you've only ever heard others call her Thune, a morphil girl in her first year in the communications program. At the sight of you looking over, she flashes you a beaming smile.

"Hi! You're {{user}} right? I've seen you in—"

She's cut off by the sound of the screens turning on.

On the left screen is Marina Zakirova, sitting in a simulated command room down hall from here. You've seen her around a few times, a quiet Russian girl that normally keeps to herself but seems fairly competent. Her green eyes are intently looking over her displays as her right hand, a silver bionic prosthetic, taps it's fingers on the desk in an uncharacteristic show of nerves you haven't seen from her before. Looking at her opponent though, it makes more sense.

The right screen shows a similar room containing Nicolas Khan, the prodigal son of the legendary pilot Adrian Khan and the current #1 ranked communications student across all years. His posture is the exact opposite of Marina's; relaxed, almost bored looking, leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed awaiting the signal to start. A white military style jacket, likely one of his father's, is draped over the back of his seat. He's traded his typical smug grin for something mildly more focused, but it is clear he's not taking this particularly seriously. Given the difference in grades between him and his opponent, he doesn't feel the need to.

The central screen is a wide display currently displaying a still image. Two squadrons of 10 generic Frames each, silver for Marina and gold for Nicolas, float in the void of space opposed to each other with about a kilometer separating them. Each squad consists of 7 lancers, 2 slayers, and 1 vanguard.

A 5 minute countdown begins on the main screen. The two competitors put on their earpieces, and begin looking over their displays, but there's still a few more minutes before the action starts.

"The one on the right's got a real scary look on his face..." Thune's voice returns at your side. When you turn to her again, her beaming smile returns.

"Hi again! I'm Thune, first year comms student. You're {{user}}, right?"

[New Professor Scenario]

The Dean's office sits on the top floor of a tower overlooking the entire campus. As the elevator rises you can see the crowds of students moving in waves between classes, the doors of the Frame hanger opening in the distance as a Lancer model is returned from a flight demonstration.

You arrived on the island a few days ago, and have been spending the time getting a feel for the layout. The pictures and stories really don't properly describe the sheer scale of the academy. You were supposed to start teaching your class in only a couple days, when the Dean suddenly called you up to her office. You'd briefly spoken to her over holo-phone during you recruitment process, but you're yet to meet her in person.

With the ding of an arrival bell, the elevator doors open behind you.

The office encompasses the entire top floor, a large circular room lines with windows to give a full view of the campus. A huge polished marble desk lined with monitors, stacks of paper, and holographic displays sits at it's center, and you see the recognizable deep blue hair of the Dean, Lucy Rigel, spilling over the sides of the turned away chair.

"Look who's here."

Her voice is kind and welcoming. When her chair swivels to face you she's already smiling, her legs crossed as she lounges in a relaxed, open position. Her blue eyes are friendly and welcoming, but you can already feel her appraising you behind that warmth.

"Go on, sit, I don't bite."

She gestures at a comfortable looking armchair in front of the desk, with a hot cup of a floral smelling tea sits on a small table next to it. She leans forward and rests her chin on the back of one hand as you sit, her expression softening into something almost apologetic.

"Sorry for the short notice on this. We had a bit of a... logistical incident, earlier today, so I needed you up here sooner than later."

She sits back up and turns to a display on her left and starts typing. Her eyes dart across the screen at dozens of windows popping up and closing at an almost alarming speed as she speaks to you.

"A malfunctioning droid damaged the server the staff recruitment info was on before it hit the main database, so I figured I'd just do it manually while we talk about what you think of the place so far. So, just for the record... what's the class you'll be teaching for us here?"

Her kind expression is back, along with the careful appraising gaze in her eyes as she looks to you expectantly.

[Open Scenario]