First Time Piloting

"...I knew it would be like this."

Watching the situation between the two, Instructor Kelvin sighed and slapped his forehead: "Do whatever you want, I'm done with you lot."

He truly couldn't keep this group in check.

But since they were all so strong, he might as well let them be.

"Instructor, why do you insist on doing these pointless things every time? You knew from the start that Yzak and the others wouldn't listen to you."

Dearka's voice drifted over lazily.

"..."

Instructor Kelvin felt as if his heart had been stabbed.

He didn't want to do this either, but as an instructor—even if just an assistant—he still had a reputation to uphold.

Being unable to restrain his students was a massive blow to an instructor's pride.

"But it's fine. You just need to beat Athrun and the others in a private duel next time. Come on, I believe in you!"

"...Dearka!"

Stabbed once more, Instructor Kelvin gritted his teeth as he spat out Dearka's name.

"Haha!"

After his mockery, Dearka cut the comms immediately, not giving the other party a chance to retort.

Seeing this, Instructor Kelvin almost jumped into a machine right then and there to teach them the meaning of respecting one's teacher.

But that was just a thought, because... he really couldn't win.

Instructor Kelvin was nearly thirty years old; his reaction speed simply couldn't compare to these fifteen or sixteen-year-old kids like Athrun.

As for combat experience, sometimes you have to admit that some people are just monsters, especially this group of top-tier talents in the land of the Coordinator.

A few months of their learning progress was enough to keep other Coordinators chasing for a lifetime.

"Um, Instructor Kelvin, what should we do next?"

Just as Instructor Kelvin was secretly grieving and trying to console himself, Eno Kamal couldn't help but lean in.

Athrun and the others were already training; even though he had gotten in through the back door, he couldn't just stand around watching.

Looking at the thirst for knowledge in Eno Kamal's eyes, and the light of longing for his guidance, Instructor Kelvin suddenly felt comforted.

Good, good. At least there is still one young man here who craves my instruction.

"Come, I will teach you how to pilot an MS!"

Carrying a high sense of respect for his identity as an instructor and a desire to regain his confidence, Instructor Kelvin pulled Eno Kamal toward the Training Unit 31 that had been temporarily brought over.

In truth, the entire Class 1 only had thirty units.

Or rather, only the top thirty students in the school enjoyed the special privilege of having one machine per person during training.

Other classes had to share one MS among three people.

However, because of Eno Kamal's sudden enrollment, that number had changed from thirty to thirty-one.

Of course, this didn't come without a price; Eno Kamal had to achieve the strength matching this rank within the next month.

As the lift carried them up, Eno Kamal saw a real MS cockpit for the first time.

"This is the power output gauge, battery level indicator, speedometer, altimeter, throttle, weapon selection dial, thruster gauge, power pedals..."

Instructor Kelvin explained in great detail.

Although this was almost meaningless to Eno, as he had already memorized all of this before preparing to enter the MS Training Class.

However, seeing how serious Instructor Kelvin was, Eno really couldn't bring himself to interrupt. He could only continue listening to the introduction and explanation, thinking that perhaps there might be something in there he didn't know.

In the blink of an eye, five minutes passed—

Eno nodded from time to time.

Ten minutes passed—

Eno's lips began to twitch, because Instructor Kelvin had started recounting his glorious history.

Fifteen minutes passed—

"You know, back then, I used a spinning back-kick to send an Earth Alliance MA flying. So you must remember, even without weapons, our MS can still exert..."

"Instructor!"

Eno couldn't take it anymore and cut Instructor Kelvin off directly: "Um, I haven't even started the machine yet. Isn't it a bit too early to talk about those things?"

"Ah? Oh, right, right. You haven't piloted an MS before, so you don't know the difficulty of those maneuvers. Come, come, let me demonstrate..."

"No, no, no, I'll do it myself! I'll do it myself!"

Upon hearing that, Eno almost slapped the instructor down. Are you the one learning, or am I?

How can you be so oblivious?

"Alright, stay safe then. Call me if you run into any trouble. There's an emergency stop button right here; just press it if anything goes wrong."

Instructor Kelvin said this with a lingering sense of reluctance.

"Understood, I will."

Eno Kamal nodded, then shut the cockpit hatch, leaving Instructor Kelvin on the other side.

He finally understood why Yzak and the others couldn't stand this instructor.

It wasn't that he was a bad person, but the man was truly a bit of a chatterbox.

"..."

Instructor Kelvin opened his mouth to speak, still having plenty left to say.

But never mind, there would be plenty of opportunities later.

After all, the only monsters in all of ZAFT were Athrun and his small circle.

Eno Kamal was already the top prodigy in the Command Department, so his talent for MS piloting surely couldn't be that high.

This time, he was determined to establish the dignity and status befitting an instructor—secretly making up his mind, Instructor Kelvin walked away from the lift.

Inside the cockpit.

Upon receiving the order from Instructor Kelvin.

Eno took a deep breath, his heart racing with excitement as he pressed the MS ignition button.

The dim cockpit lit up, and the pitch-black instrument panel began to flicker to life.

As the mono-eye on the MS head flashed, external imagery was projected onto the screens inside the cockpit via the head sensors.

The human eye typically has a field of view of 124 degrees, with a single eye reaching up to 156 degrees and binocular vision up to 188 degrees; the absolute limit is about 150 degrees vertically and 230 degrees horizontally.

The screen before him was designed based on these human visual parameters, creating an immersive experience that made him feel as though he were looking down upon everything from above.

Hiss—hoo!

Looking down at the diminutive figure of Instructor Kelvin, Eno tried to calm his racing heart and slowly began to apply pressure to the power pedal with his right foot.

Wooo—

As power output surged, the machine's engine roared, and the steel-forged right leg lifted and stepped forward.

Thud!

The tremor of steel meeting earth traveled up from below; this was the first step Eno had ever taken in an MS.

The feedback from the vibration he had created sparked a strange light in Eno's eyes, and a marvelous sensation welled up in his heart.

In that moment, he felt as if the machine had come alive, with the steel becoming an extension of his own body.

Under the watchful eyes of Instructor Kelvin's team, the MS Eno piloted turned its head to look at its slowly raised right hand.

Clench, release, clench, release—

After testing it a few times, Eno pulled his gaze away from the hand that kept clenching and unclenching, looking toward the ground ahead of the hangar, where the machines of Athrun and Yzak were engaged in close-quarters combat.

Watching their silhouettes under the sunlight, Eno began to apply pressure to the pedal with his left leg, moving the MS forward.

Thud!

The MS left leg moved forward and landed, the right foot following suit—

Slowly, amidst the exhilarating tremors, Unit 31, piloted by Eno, walked out of the MS hangar and stood under the brilliant sunlight.

"The balance is excellent; he's a natural."

Instructor Kelvin couldn't help but feel surprised as he looked at the feedback data.

The balance feedback data from the MS Eno was piloting was outstanding, nearly indistinguishable from the balance of a normal human.

This meant Eno had cleared the first hurdle of MS piloting.

Although training MS came equipped with a built-in balance system, that thing didn't actually serve much of a purpose.

Because in space combat, MS were meant to fly, and flipping and maneuvering were daily routines; in those conditions, talking about gravity balance was...

Eno was unaware of Instructor Kelvin's train of thought.

He was currently immersed in the complex emotions brought on by his first time piloting an MS.

If not for the cursed identity of his predecessor and the war about to break out, being an MS pilot would truly be a fascinating profession.

Thud, thud, thud—

Successive tremors echoed across the ground.

There, two MS were locked in close-quarters combat; the radar feedback and data identified them as Athrun's Unit 1 and Yzak's Unit 3.

Standing on either side were the machines of Unit 2 and Unit 4.