Unlike university, pilot training had played hell with Natalie, and she was still getting used to piloting the monolithic piece of machinery that, until recently, she had been helping to design.  But when your recruiting numbers are down across the board and your Engel rejection rates are through the roof, changes needed to be made.<br/><br/>Quietly, she had been one of the major proponents of combined arms forces.  Engels were routinely returning from the field perfectly fine, but with deranged and highly unstable pilots.  On the other hand, the  numbers of lost equipment and overall casualty rate concerning mecha pilots was becoming unacceptable - they simply were proving to lack the resilience necessary to continue operational combat.  Pilot casualties were reaching horrendous levels.<br/><br/>All it took was a little push here and there, and Ashcroft had proposed the combined doctrine, alongside new research avenues in consolidated force strategies and implementations.  This first stage of the project was critical.  Every pilot here had been hand picked for their various capabilities - a new rapid-response, rapid-implementation force.<br/><br/>As the Khopesh settled down, the servomotors in the leg whirring gently as they cycled to take the weight, the machine began to flicker on, various subsystems kicking on and providing the full tactical suite of information to Natalie's eyes.  She was here as a tactician and technician.  To plan and think on the fly.  Her briefing was to provide tactical coordination alongside precision suppression fire.  Nonetheless, she knew she was barely qualified to be a pilot.  She'd been rushed through pilot training to be a part of this venture, and many of the controls were still only barely understood.<br/><br/>The mecha took a few hesitant steps, braced itself in a full on firing position, and routed power to the laser battery that provided the Khopesh's main combat effectiveness. She keyed in her authorization code on the mecha's advanced com suite, tensing slightly at the acknowledging green light for the op.<br/><br/>"All units, Bookie here, safeties off, op is a go. Good hunting!"<br/><br/>The cannon discharged at a distant target, the targeting computers having coordinated the optimal firing angle.  Natalie, according to most other pilots, relied on her instrumentation far too much.  She'd never had the 'feel' for their machines other pilots kept mentioning.<br/><br/>Not yet used to the differences between the simulations and the actual combat model, the full firing effect of a Khopesh's linked laser cannons was enough to jar the aim of any subsequent shots.  Nonetheless, it made for an impressive display, the lance of energy making for great footage for the media cameras.