Chapter 77: Field Training Heavy Exoskeleton Armor Simulation Training
Xiang Chuan looked at the thick exoskeleton armor in front of her, feeling a surge of emotion in her heart: she had truly arrived in the future world of an SF setting…
If the gravity-free cars seen at home and on the streets, fully automatic kitchens, and robot service staff were products of elementary school-level science fiction imagination, then the full-body training exoskeleton armor in front of her, which seemed like something that would appear in Gundam or Armored Core, was a middle school-level science fiction imagination product.
—It wasn’t that she had played these games, but the team leader of a certain group in their company’s promotion department was a die-hard fan of Giant Hard, and every few days they would stuff some game images into the PPTs used for the monthly product meetings. Over time, the female staff in their marketing department all remembered the game names.
Since she hadn’t actually played the games, Xiang Chuan’s mental image of this heavy training exoskeleton armor in motion was entirely based on Tony Stark’s cool suit in the movies. Don’t ask how she knew; ask and it’s from watching movies at the monthly company gatherings. Tony Stark was indeed handsome.
While Xiang Chuan was staring blankly at these massive objects nearly two meters tall, the sports department members from each class couldn’t sit still anymore and rushed to apply to try the heavy exoskeleton armor simulation training first.
Come on! Heavy exoskeleton armor! These are massive things used only when exploring non-gaseous giant planets! Even on military escort ships, there’s normally no chance to ride them! And now they could actually test ride them!
Even if they were just training machines, it was enough to make these sports club students, who usually had plenty of research on exoskeletons and exoskeleton armor, light up like hungry wolves pouncing on prey.
Xiang Chuan and the class president, being from non-sports clubs, naturally chose to let those who were eager have their fill first before trying. It was mandatory training anyway, and everyone would get a turn.
“But speaking of which, why are there so many training machines?” Liang Gong looked around the training ground, where nearly a hundred heavy training exoskeleton armors were placed. Normally, this scale of training machines would only appear in fleets like the Ninth Fleet or Tenth Fleet that pioneered routes or developed planetary resources. Their own fleet was in agriculture, and even when near non-gaseous giant planets, military escort ships would only collect a certain quantity of planetary soil to convert into energy or fertilizer needed to maintain land nutrients.
“I heard from Mother that our escort ship’s heavy exoskeleton armor is being replaced with new models, and this old batch has been retired. Maybe this base took them and converted them into training machines?” Nancy explained.
“Nancy, aren’t you going to try it? I remember you’re in the engineering club too?” Xiang Chuan looked at her curiously.
“During holidays, I went to construction sites with Mother and basically piloted every type of exoskeleton armor, even the latest test models. I could operate this batch and carry construction materials back in elementary school.” Nancy proudly tilted her head up, looking at her peers sitting into the exoskeleton armor operation cockpits under the guidance of teachers and instructors, implying that as a senior, she wouldn’t snatch old toys from these juniors.
“Replacing so many at once?” Ainuo frowned. “Does our fleet have that much liquid capital?”
“Huh? Are these very expensive?” As soon as Xiang Chuan spoke, she received helpless looks from those around her that treated her like a little fool. She raised an eyebrow: whatever, I’m immune.
“Expensive, very expensive.” As the only expert among those present, Nancy began explaining. “One heavy exoskeleton armor could let you build twenty A Bite of China Club kitchens. Expensive or not?”
Uh…
Faced with this analogy, Xiang Chuan was stumped. To say it wasn’t expensive—last week’s incident had wiped out a third of the pocket money she’d saved her whole life. To say it was expensive—it was just half a lifetime’s worth of her pocket money. Compared to the missiles and radars from her previous life whose production costs alone exceeded what she could earn in ten lifetimes of nonstop work at the company, it suddenly didn’t seem that costly…?
People’s sense of money gets distorted just like that.
Seeing Xiang Chuan’s entangled expression full of doubt, Ouyang Yating and Ainuo, who hadn’t known her long but had a firm grasp on her brain circuits, knew: their club president was definitely thinking about all sorts of irrelevant things.
“Nancy, Ainuo, continue. Don’t mind her.” Ouyang Yating urged. She only had a rough understanding of exoskeleton armor herself and wanted to hear from the expert now.
Nancy saw Xiang Chuan’s strange expression and couldn’t help laughing, but she still explained seriously: “The hardware production cost of one exoskeleton armor is basically 40 to 50 million Star Yuan, which is actually the cheapest part in terms of peripherals costs. The most critical drive system is purchased from the Tenth Fleet, and one exoskeleton armor’s system alone costs nearly 200 million Star Yuan, not even counting the regular maintenance fees.”
200 million! Hearing this number finally gave Xiang Chuan a real sense that these iron lumps were expensive, and she involuntarily gasped.
Ainuo continued her words: “In terms of production cost alone, one exoskeleton armor requires 200 to 300 million Star Yuan. Over a hundred of them isn’t just 20 or 30 billion—there’s also maintenance costs and such. Our fleet’s annual military expenses and pioneering expenses combined are only just over 10 billion. The main ship guard, military escort ships, and Energy Development Bureau fight over this bit of funding every year. How could the government have spare expenses to replace over a hundred exoskeleton armors?”
“Maybe… they temporarily added funding?” Xiang Chuan guessed blankly.
“The Third Fleet’s economic lag isn’t a matter of just one or two centuries. Where would our fleet get hundreds of billions in liquid funds to use casually? If there was really that much money, the Education Bureau and Agriculture Bureau would take it first. It wouldn’t be the military department or Energy Development Bureau’s turn.” Ainuo said.
So… where did these over a hundred training machines and the heavy exoskeleton armors that filled their vacancies come from?
With complex feelings of doubt, everyone looked at the heavy exoskeleton armors on the training ground, some moving crookedly and others nimbly.
But thanks to there being around a hundred heavy exoskeleton armors, under the rule that each person could test ride for fifteen minutes, it soon was Xiang Chuan’s turn, even though she had chosen to line up last.
To be honest, ever since experiencing that weird sphere in physics class last time, Xiang Chuan had developed some PTSD toward modern sealed devices like this. But since it was part of the training, she was still forcibly seated into the operation cockpit by the teacher and instructor.
“Relax, operating it is about the same as a mechanical exoskeleton.” The instructor comforted.
But the problem was she hadn’t even operated a mechanical exoskeleton! There was that memory in “memory,” sure, but when was that from? Before elementary school!
Just as Xiang Chuan was wondering whether to seize the chance to rush out of the operation cockpit, the heavy exoskeleton armor suddenly closed up, locking her firmly in place.
So dark! So cramped! So scary! Xiang Chuan’s mind now flashed with this shout straight out of an old manga.
She instinctively wanted to flail her arms to struggle, then discovered her hands could actually move freely…?
[Yes, maintain that state.] The communicator inside the heavy exoskeleton armor transmitted the instructor’s voice. [The exoskeleton armor is equipped with brainwave sensing and neural sensing at the joints. As long as you keep your brain awake and silently think in your mind about your next actions, you can make the exoskeleton armor move freely as usual.]
She followed the instructor’s words and tried some movements, and sure enough, she could walk freely. Though the sensation of walking with feet off the ground felt a bit weird, it was still better than that weird physics class sphere overall. But a new problem arose.
“Instructor, I can’t see ahead. How do I open the main viewscreen?”
After taking the first step, Xiang Chuan didn’t dare move, because everything in front of her was pitch black.
[Try closing your eyes and then slowly opening them, imagining what you see around you after waking up.]
Close eyes, open eyes, still pitch black.
“Instructor, I still can’t see anything.”
[Huh? That’s really strange.]
And so Xiang Chuan’s heavy exoskeleton armor simulation training turned into main viewscreen repair training.
Not far away, Ouyang Yating facepalmed, Ainuo looked at the sky, and Liang Gong gave a wry smile.
Why did their club president always run into unprecedented mishaps with enclosed equipment?
I’ll try to make up the owed chapter this week. Thank goodness there’s no major exam this week; last week had exams for four straight days, people were numb…
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