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It seemed that, in the face of alien technology that had yet to receive a full definition, the computers revealed their limits. Replaying the engagement at Beijing again and again refused to provide any concrete results. The SRX Team could go toe-to-toe against the R-Gun Rivale for about two minutes before the simulation crashed and had to be rebooted by the programmers: It simply could not duplicate the abilities of that machine without more information. After about a dozen failures along the same lines, Robert – reaching the end of his patience – suggested that the team take a break.
Ryusei called down from his pod, "Hold on a second, Rob. I've got an idea." Rai, sitting in the pod next to his, seemed too deep in thought to pay attention, at first, but he soon turned to listen to what Ryusei was saying after Robert climbed up the ladder to see what the young pilot had in mind. Aya, on the other side of Rai, was crunching numbers in her pod computer, but she also paused after Rai leaned over to tap her on the shoulder and quietly convey the gist of the conversation. She blinked once, but then nodded: Truth be told, it did not sound like a bad idea for taking a break.
After a few minutes of recalibrating the simulation, Robert announced, looking bemused in spite of himself, "All right, then. SRX Team, run simulation – all limits removed. Start run." In other words, for the sake of blowing off steam, Ryusei had asked him to suspend the normal algorithms the computers used to calculate unit damage, meaning that nothing that was about to happen was going to be in any way realistic, but it at least allowed the team to take temporary vengeance upon the R-Gun Rivale and (a virtualized version of) the traitor piloting it in the most dramatic – and overpowered – way possible.
Rai could not suppress a snort at being able to destroy one of the humanoid Aerogator machines with a single blow from his beam chakram. Aya obliterated a whole row of the spider-shaped machines with one shot of her TK laser. And Ryusei used his giant revolver to make like the main character of a John Woo film and blast his way through a whole group of enemies with only six bullets. None of it would have been possible in a regular combat situation, but they made it work. And, when the R-Gun Rivale showed up, instead of hanging back and playing it safe, they charged it at full speed.
All of that impregnable alien technology, and Ryusei could make hash of it using a basic M-95 machine gun. He and the others bashed the R-Gun back and forth amongst each other like a laser-spitting pinball, and it could not do a thing to them. Granted, there was no useful data for Rob to take from the whole experience, but it had Aya laughing, had Rai smirking, and had everybody feeling like they could overcome the failure they had experienced back at Beijing. They still had a long road ahead of them, but being able to cheat, just that once, made it feel a little less impossible.
As the three of them left, joking and patting each other on the back like the SRX Team had never suffered that crushing defeat, Rob muttered to himself, raising a brow as he looked down at the main screen on his console, "Huh. Imagine that. Trying to factor in all the damage from unknown variables was what was causing those system crashes. Figures that they would fix something without really meaning to." Their voices faded over his shoulder, and he looked up at the simulator pods, thinking, You know what? In the end, all of this just might work out after all. Go get them, team.
END.