Chapter Five: Kill That Lizard for Me! (New Edition)

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Seventh Fleet Reserve Military Base, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy
It had already been three months since they arrived at the base. There were a total of fifty-four cadets who came along with Shaoyu Liu, thirty from the Huaxia Republic and twenty-four from other Earth Federation nations. All of them had just turned eighteen.

A young man's fingers moved swiftly across the luminous display.
"Done!"
He had just completed assembling the core propulsion module of a D-class strategic battleship. Although there were no such courses after graduation from the Command Academy, Shaoyu Liu made it a rule for himself to analyze the structure of one starship every day. He had done this countless times for D-class ships like this one.

While captains were not strictly required to know every internal structure, understanding the limits and layout of their vessel was vital for a fleet fighting in alien battlefields.
"Eighteen seconds. That's my limit. Next, I'll move on to C-class," the young man muttered to himself. This was Shaoyu Liu.

The base was located on a space station orbiting Earth's satellite. Its area was small compared to Earth, and most occupants were reserve trainees like themselves. The true combat personnel resided at the Seventh Fleet's military base outside the Solar System, where officers were permanently on standby, alongside vast armies of clones—and, of course, the rulers of the cosmos: starships.

The training routines for the reserve trainees varied. For Shaoyu Liu and his group, they were currently undergoing space fitness training.
"Third match, Salamander Team versus Dragonling Team!" The command was issued by a colonel in his thirties. His name tag read Kang Youcheng, a straightforward name that led the cadets to affectionately call him "Master Kang" in private.

This team-on-team combat training was inspired by army mech simulations.
"Countdown begins. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one—"

A moment ago, the combat hall was pitch black. Suddenly, a gale swept through, raising clouds of dust and sand. Visibility dropped to less than five meters, yellow sand piled up everywhere.
"SX4 mechs activated, wind force level nine. Ground analysis: Mech mobility reduced by fifteen percent," the diagnostic voice echoed inside the mechs.

Each side had eleven members. Every squad possessed one SX4 flagship mech, nine SX3 combat mechs, and one SX3 logistics officer mech.
"Team members, conceal yourselves. Find dunes to hide, watch the wind direction, await orders," came the flagship mech's voice over wireless transmission.
"Military officer, report position," another order sounded.
"Initiate holographic map sharing," said the logistics officer mech, which had abandoned offensive modules in favor of a compact holographic projection device, making the military officer the eyes of the squad during localized operations.
"Electromagnetic interference, sharing impossible," the AI announced, frustrating the squad. Clearly, the enemy had activated electromagnetic jamming first. Such interference heavily drained mech capacitors, meaning the enemy's radar couldn't operate at full capacity, and the battle duration would be sharply shortened.
"All mechs, activate current shielding, keep concealed, don't waste capacitor power."

On this sandstorm-swept battlefield, radar gone, it was a blind struggle—no one could find anyone.

Suddenly, the wind dropped. Visibility, once under five meters, increased, and as the sand cleared, five black mechs appeared out of nowhere.

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"Attention! Enemy attack!" The first to react was a female officer of the Dragonling Team piloting the SX3 combat mech "Peach."
"Fire cover!" At her command, the cannons behind her mech blazed.
The exposed Dragonling mechs did not panic. Instead, they quickly regrouped and retreated, opening distance. As they re-formed, Peach's fire support arrived.

The enemy mechs responded swiftly, instantly activating energy screens for defense.
For SX3 mechs, normal artillery couldn't penetrate their shields, but powerful kinetic force would still jolt them—a thousand bites make even the thick-skinned itch.
"Don't waste energy, fall back and fire," Peach's mech declared.
"Watch for enemy mech attack!" Suddenly, a pure black mech darted from behind them. It was an advanced model, its mechanical arm's particle blade aimed at Peach's cockpit.
"Careful, Peach!" The black mech was so fast that the team could only respond with a hurried barrage, both because of its speed and fear of friendly fire.
"Don't worry about me! Fire! Particle cannons hit friend and foe alike—just kill that lizard!" Peach shouted.

"Fire" was the Dragonling Team's red mech, which had abandoned heavy artillery in favor of a wide-area particle cannon. This beam could easily pierce energy shields and devastate mechs themselves.
"Particle cannon charging." At the command, Fire's pilot yanked the controls, striving to manually lock onto the enemy.

These events unfolded in mere moments, just enough for Peach's pilot to barely activate the energy shield, as the enemy's particle blade was about to strike.

A sudden twist. The blade, poised to hit Peach, was abruptly deflected. Then a thunderous boom.
"Peach, treat me to steak later," came a voice. The blast wasn't a mistake by the enemy, but a friendly combat mech with a Central Asian cannon sniping from afar, forcing the particle blade off course.

The powerful impact jammed the blade's drive mechanism, requiring a recharge—about five seconds.
But five seconds was all Peach needed to escape and turn from defense to attack.
"Leave this to me, you handle those Salamanders," Shaoyu Liu's flagship mech cut into the fray, charging directly at the enemy's black mech.

The white mech's engines spat out blue flames, ramming toward the black mech. Shaoyu Liu's Dragonling mech had abandoned its long-range systems, its arms fitted with twin particle swords.

Just as they were about to collide, Dragonling performed a flawless 180-degree turn, sweeping the swords in a perfect circle. This near-limit move would have crippled a lesser mech—this was a seven-ton war machine, not a child's toy.

The black mech could only raise its newly charged particle blade to block, while its other arm fired. The arm's weapons, designed for flexibility, couldn't match the Central Asian cannon's penetration, but still posed trouble.

Inside Dragonling, Shaoyu Liu's brow was drenched in sweat. The high-difficulty maneuver had taxed him greatly. Although the simulated force system aided operation, twisting a seven-ton machine was still tough—even for a soldier who had completed the full Human Completion Project. For ordinary participants, even moving the control rod would be impossible.

"Particle swords charged, shifting capacitor to shield." At the command, Shaoyu Liu pulled the lever hard. This artillery barrage would cause serious problems for his "cut corners" mech.

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He had to finish quickly, Shaoyu Liu thought. His mech's capacitor was down to sixty percent.

He knew this black mech well—it was the only SX4 in the Salamander Team, Salamander itself. As a peer model, Shaoyu Liu was intimately familiar with its weaknesses.
Lack of mobility was a universal flaw for all mechs.

But Shaoyu Liu's own mech had been "cut down"—
On the battlefield, the white mech's thrusters spat out blue flames, rapidly propelling it to the right, then abruptly changing direction to charge forward. This speed nearly doubled Salamander's earlier attack on Peach, even enemy snipers couldn't lock on.

Salamander could only raise its particle blade defensively.
Boom!
The massive impact pushed Salamander back five meters.

In the cockpit, Shaoyu Liu's hands flew over the controls, swinging the twin swords. At last, Salamander exposed a gap in its defense, and Shaoyu Liu seized the moment, thrusting in his particle swords.
"Particle swords fully charged."

Like slicing tofu, Salamander was cleaved neatly in two.
Bang! Another explosion—Dragonling's sword overloaded and blew apart.

"Combat over. Dragonling Team has destroyed the Salamander Team's flagship mech. Ten victory points awarded. Salamander Team loses ten points due to total destruction of flagship," announced the AI.

In an instant, the smoky battlefield reverted to an empty hall.
"Communication command: Shaoyu Liu, report to the command office immediately," sounded in his ear. Great, another scolding, Shaoyu Liu thought.

His mech's improved mobility and agility had come from stripping off all four tons of armor, reducing its weight and enabling capacitor overload for extreme maneuvers. Such modifications were only possible in simulated combat using fully holographic projections—
Theoretically, any operation possible in simulation could be performed.

But heading to the office, Master Kang would surely start with, "Why didn't you use the shield?"
Still, once he earned enough victory points, he'd be promoted. He was used to getting scolded.
Shaoyu Liu's current mindset could be summed up as: "When you owe enough, you don't worry about it anymore."