Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

Unsurprisingly, the only ones who picked combat-related games were the ones who were already in combat-related professions, but one of the Pilots had chosen a non-combat game, perhaps by chance or accident.

The game that the Pilot had chosen was a simple strategy game, not one of the combat simulation ones like [Unit Commander] or [Station Chief]. It was more of a theoretical sort of strategy game suited to someone in central intelligence or senior command positions, as well as chess players, computer coding specialists and others who used extreme logical skills and predictive abilities on a regular basis.

Technically, every ability is a combat ability if you use it wrong or right enough, but this one was definitely in the category of desk job simulators.

His brain waves registered that he was happy with the choice, though, so Max didn't ask if he would like to back out of his choice and switch.

Nico pointed to another pod with a grim look on her face. "Everyone is afraid of the Pilot's skills, but that woman there is the scary one. Guaranteed, one hundred percent sociopath."

Max looked into her mind at the game the Koleska staffer was playing and smirked at Nico. It was an accounting simulation where you did all the bookkeeping for a newly formed colony and expanded it to a full planet, then a galactic empire. It was essentially a hyperrealistic version of Civilization Builder that Max had played as a kid, with an emphasis on numbers and monetary policy.

She might not be a sociopath, as Nico had insisted, but Max could pretty much guarantee that she was not the life of any party.

Some of the players were very bad at the game they had chosen and soon switched to another one that they thought might be more suitable. By the end of the first hour, everyone seemed to have one that they were happy with, and the Commander was working on level seven of the Base Defence simulation that Nico had built. It was the same one that she used for the human version, a copy of their bridge defence deployment, but with the Koleska and the Arisen as the protagonists and antagonists.

[Two hours are up. Please log out and prepare to give your first impression of the gaming systems.] Nico informed everyone in the pods, and Max sensed the wave of dissatisfaction.

The Koleska would make very good gamers once they had access to the technology. They were excellent at single-minded focus, and once they got into a game, that was it, they were hooked.

"Nico, we should enable time compression, so they can single-player game for longer. I think the Koleska are the sort to become complete shut-ins once they get real games. A month in the pod in an hour-long gaming session should be enough to satisfy them and leave them ready to get back to work." Max whispered to her before anyone could leave their pods.

"Got it. I will enable it before we send any units out."

The Koleska gathered at the center of the room, ready to give their impressions to their superiors.

"We will start with the negative. Who has a negative review of a game to share with the group? I know some of you switched multiple times before finding one you liked." Max asked.

A younger Koleska man, with only a small scrap of red cloth tied around one arm, marking him as the very lowest of the low-ranking occupants of the station, raised his hand.

"Yes, the Swordfish is complete and utter bullshit. It broke my line seven times and pulled me overboard twice." He announced, earning himself confused looks from all around the room.

"Did you strap yourself into the chair and use the rod with the more durable metal line?" Max asked, knowing he hadn't.

"What difference is there? It's fishing, and it's a fish." The irate staffer asked.

Max brought up a hologram of the Swordfish that the simulator had him catching. They were a variant over five metres long and weighing well over a tonne.

"That is what you were trying to catch. Do you have any questions about how it pulled you out of the boat?" Max laughed.

Commander Yuri whistled. "Even human fishing is on another level."

"There are onshore, relaxing, spend your days in a cloth chair options as well. The Swordfish is one of the deep ocean options, with the biggest, coolest boats." Max explained.

The Koleska all nodded in understanding. They would have picked it first, too. The temptation was too great.

"Any other complaints?"

"Aliens attacked and burned my records twice in one game." The accountant, who Nico had labelled a sociopath, pouted.

"Oh, bad luck. Did you try to push the advancement by sending out signal beacons, or did you just get a bad random roll for neighbours?"

The accountant looked eager to try again after Max's question.

"That's right, I asked for help from the interstellar community as soon as I could force-produce communications technology that reached out of the solar system." She agreed.

"And you didn't think to see if they were friendly? The simulation is random and not based on the actual neighbours of the Koleska." He reminded her.

The accountant made a noise that Max translated as a facepalm gesture and sighed. "I get it now. It's not that the game is too hard. It's that I misunderstood the nature of the game and called hostile aliens to my doorstep before we even developed spaceships or energy weapons."

Nico smiled at the room as she took notes.

"Did anyone encounter a glitch or a truly boring or terrible game?" She asked.

"The first one I picked was pretty bad. It put me at a bridge with a unit of War Machines, and then we just got brutally stomped on without even time to prepare or dig fortifications. I get that the games can be hard, but that was just stupid. One time I got blown up before I even stepped out of the lander." A pilot complained while Commander Yuri laughed.

"I played that one too. I must have died seven times before the time was up. But the last time, we made it through the first assault."

Nico nodded and added her notes on the subject.

"Alright, it seems that what we need most aren't different games, as the only real complaints were the difficulty level and lack of introduction to the games. What I propose is to add a function that will cause the users to perceive time differently inside the pod, as they do with the learning machines, so that you can have more time in the simulation to practice or relax, whichever you wish to do with your free time." She explained.

For humans, too much compression would be boring, as their brains would store it closer to real-time, like a vague dream full of data, but the Koleska remembered the events in the Learning Machines as if they were there the whole time, so putting the same tech to work in the Pods would be perfect for them.

"That would be excellent. If it could be the same dilation, one year of training to an hour in the Pods, we could make huge progress." The Subcommander from Logistics suggested.

"Remember, this is a game, a leisure activity to help balance the experiences and lifestyles of the crew. Perhaps having them experience an extra year every evening after work might be detrimental to their actual job performance. That's a long time away from work." Max reminded him.

The accountant and the Logistics Subcommander shared a professional look, then a nod, before the Subcommander returned his attention to Max.

"Can we perhaps have the option to adjust the time dilation effect so we can test optimal work performance?" He asked hopefully.

[Great, now there are two 'numbers people.'] Nico thought to herself, but outwardly she nodded.

"That should be possible within the software that I have available. We will be eagerly awaiting your decision on how many units you would like for the Station's Arcade. They will be a gift of goodwill from us to the station, a form of condolence for their lost comrades." Nico announced, saving them the hassle of negotiating a price.

"It would be rude of us to refuse your gift. We will have data with the amount of space available by the morning." Commander Yuri announced, cutting off the Logistics officer, who still desperately wanted to discuss the intricate details of the Pods' placement in each and every space they had available.

He knew his staff well.