Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142
House Thoth, Squad Leader, Squad Zero
M1 Rank: 1/1275, Tier 3 M-Rank: Null
Term: 2 to 3, Break
Daedalus Financial Position: -1,760,000 bitcreds
----------------------------------------
“We’re staying another day,” Daedo said emphatically.
“Your stream had one million views, and they have started a petition to have us reinstated into the competition,” Axel-Zero said.
“That won’t do anything unless they can hit a pain point with Svarski,” Barran observed.
“How is the …,” Vannier began before dropping down into a conspiratorial whisper, “Rootkit coming along Mace?”
Mace rolled her eyes at Vannier. “We have dampeners on. No one can hear you. And if they really wanted to, they would just lip read you or have audio sensors which could hear your heartbeat let alone a whisper. That being said, the rootkit is picking up his every communication. He doesn’t use his implant for anything but comms and a few apps. There is no AI.”
“Not many old people have AIs,” Kang observed.
“Cisse and my father don’t, but the Masters and the Chiefs do,” Daedo added.
“So what’s the plan? How are we going to get these bastards?” Picard asked.
“I can think of two ways,” Vannier began, “Can you think of anything Barran?”
Barran waved his hand indicating Vannier should just say what she was thinking.
“Firstly, we can pressure them publicly, using the stream, polls, give the people enough ammunition to organise boycotts of Svarski products, the normal backlash scenario. Or, secondly, we wait, gather intel from the rootkit and hit Svarski or the IBA hard when we have the evidence.”
“The viral approach may happen without any more influence from us. Old Dawg was popular. The fans are unhappy. The statement that the committee put out was hosed because of the stream. No one believes them,” Mace said.
“What do you think Daedo?” Vannier asked.
“What Mace just said answers it for us. We allow the public campaign to go on. We can release information to assist, but nothing from the rootkit. Let’s keep it under wraps and continue to get information from the Inspector. What was his name?”
“Ichinose,” Mace said. “He’s not an engineer, not a traditional one. I am familiar with his type.”
“He’s a player?” Barran asked. “And you are familiar with players?”
Mace stared at Barran, warning him to shut up, “I am familiar with players and idiots.” She said in such a fashion indicating that line of questioning was over.
“We should stream sensor readings for radioactivity, size, weight and anything else that the regulations require,” Vannier said.
“That’s a good idea. Get everything on the record, and then the fans will ask why? What was the reason for the audit?” Picard said.
“You didn’t ask why we are staying another day,” Daedo said.
“Because you want to get Old Dawg and Titan Hyperion reinstated?” Vannier asked.
Daedo nodded to Kang. “Dead Beat was not disqualified.”
“Oh, Shit!” she exclaimed.
“Why? How did they miss Dead Beat?” Vannier asked.
“He doesn’t have the same owner, and his odds were terrible. I didn’t place a large bet on him,” Daedo said.
Everyone laughed.
Barran slapped Kang on the back. “You got through 'cos your odds sucked. That’s precious!”
“It does highlight the culprit without needing the intel,” Mace said.
“It’s decided. We won't hound Svarski. The IBA is our enemy,” Daedo said.
“They still let it happen, but I guess the fans will take care of Svarski while we focus on the IBA,” Vannier stated.
“I want to hurt them,” Axel-Zero stated quietly.
“That’s good, because this will probably get legal. I’ll leave it to you, with Mace and Barran as your support,” Daedo said.
“The best way to hurt them is to take all their creds and their ability to make creds,” Barran said.
“It doesn’t have to be legal,” Mace said ominously.
Daedo looked at Mace and Axel-Zero wondering if he had two mini Naders on his hands. After a moment of nervous contemplation, he turned to Kang, “Let’s go get Dead Beat ready.”
----------------------------------------
“Watching Dead Beat lose was painful,” Mister Kang said. “Not only did we lose once, but twice!”
“Thanks, Father. Please bring it up at every possible occasion,” Kang replied. She was always polite with her father, but he was trying her patience with the dramatic loss in the first round of the main tournament.
They were on the carrier heading back to Nanterre with the four mechs stowed neatly on the sides while the Daedalus crew were strapped comfortably in the interior cabin. They all wore Daedalus bodysuits except for Jeram and Mister Kang who, with helmets on, were able to share voice comms with the entire group.
Daedo was working on updating his mech designs in virtual space. Cisse and Vannier were working as well. Barran and Ikaros were sleeping. Picard was relaxing while Axel-Zero and Mace had a private conversation.
“What’s the status on our mole?” Axel-Zero asked.
“I’ll share the appropriate conversations. But the very best one just came through. He has just spoken to an IBA executive from London and confirmed payment for a successful mission. He even shared a vid of the meeting with us in the Mech Bay,” Mace said.
“This is probably enough,” Axel-Zero said with everyone else listening in suspense.
“I’m using a tunneller to try and break through the IBA executive’s security. I have his address from the comms they thought were secure, it’s just a matter of breaking through now,” Mace said.
“Can it be traced back to you?”
“Anything is possible. The question is whether it's probable,” Mace replied.
“What’s the next step. One that is low risk,” Axel-Zero asked.
“I’ve been thinking of attaching a hook on their next voice communications. It will follow the sound byte, and I will be able to pull the tunnel in using the hook. Once I have the tunnel, I will search around for the safest place and method to lay in a rootkit. And if we get that far- we own him,” Mace stated assuredly.
“I had no idea you were this into with hacking,” Axel-Zero stated.
“I’d appreciate it if you kept it between us. The more people who know, the more likely I am discovered through mundane means,” Mace said.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“Mundane,” Axel-Zero said laughing before subsiding. “There is no doubt now. It was the IBA.”
“Yes, there is no doubt. But, I agree, the tournament organisers aren’t blameless. They failed to stop it happening,” Mace said.
“Do you want to interrupt Daedo with the news?” Axel-Zero asked
“No! You interrupt him. You’re in charge!” Mace replied.
Daedo was working on improvements to the mech design based on their findings from the tournament. He had decided to retain the hands on the Mechs allowing flexibility in the loadouts. The mechs could easily plug in a railgun, PPC or Assault-cannon. However, once it was attached as an arm, the weapon was locked in for that round.
His assessments on weapons were coming down to a preference for railguns yet again. The assault-cannons and auto-cannons had much less penetration than a railgun which resulted in inferior damage against superior armours and shields.
PPCs could be blocked too easily with particle shields, something he was adding to each Mech. A particle shield would block a particle weapon, but they were useless against kinetic weapons. They couldn’t even block a grain of sand, let alone a railgun round. However, against a PPC they were devastatingly effective.
Missiles were nullified with good point defence. He loved the indirect fire aspect of a missile, but modern point defence was too good. Myrmidon had trawled through the last few years of Tier one competitions and missiles had all but disappeared.
The large railguns on a mech were powered by a reactor ten times the size of an exo reactor. They could adapt the current railguns design and add seven super caps. This would increase its rate of fire to two rounds every second. It was possible to have a higher rate of fire on a smaller, one-handed, railguns which had less penetration, but the main weapon needed all the penetration power he could deliver.
Updating Vannier's design with a few innovations from the mystery box, adding extra super caps he arrived at two models for the mech railgun. The only missing element was the ark. Once he had enough, he would need to decide whether the exotic element from the arkernite would go into a particle accelerator for the troika reactor or the railguns. If he had enough, it could go into both.
The two-handed mech railguns would have enough penetration power to shoot through a building and damage a mech on the other side. The question was, how did the AR adjudicator handle this. And would it even be allowed?
Daedo: Myrmidon, can you search for instances in the Inter-Academy league of a round of ammunition penetrating a building or structure and damaging a mech that was using that structure for cover?
Myrmidon: I have 1,350 matches in memory. None have this occurrence.
Daedo: Three years?
Myrmidon: Including the mass melee and playoffs.
Daedo searched the rules with Myrmidons help. Structures were considered impenetrable due to large variations in possible composition.
Daedo: That’s so dumb
Myrmidon: Agreed! Meatheads rule out too many weapons due to incompetence.
Daedo: I think ruling out nuclear weapons is appropriate.
Myrmidon: War is war. Everything should be allowed to ensure the survival of the species.
Daedo: That may be the point. Use of those weapons may win the battle but lose the war.
Myrmidon: I do not mind. I am backed up and impervious to radiation.
Daedo: I’m not! Let's move on. How is the mine progression do you have an update from Aemo?
Myrmidon: One moment … stage one is 87% complete. Stage two will begin in less than thirty hours.
Daedo: Tell him good work. He is ahead of schedule.
The procurement of arkernite would begin during stage two. He could have asked Aemo to scan the entire area and bring it in with the small prospector drones, but, decided to let it happen in the natural order, despite his desire to get his hands on the material and begin testing.
He checked the time; they would be landing in forty minutes. Daedo sent orders to the workshop to begin manufacture of the latest designs. Krecke would visit tomorrow in preparation for the first Inter-Academy match, and he wanted to have one new model ready at least.
----------------------------------------
“We can’t fire this railgun here,” Daedo stated.
“Really?” Krecke asked.
“I would want ten times the reinforcement in terms of point impact. This range is fine for exos, but not the mech weapons,” Daedo stated. “Do you want a demo? Or would you like to pilot it yourself?”
“I will jump in, if that’s okay,” Krecke replied, and Daedo nodded.
He added Krecke’s ID as an approved pilot, and she was able to use her own HUD to order the mech to lift her into the pilot’s cabin.
“I saw your mechs on stream,” she said through voice comms after closing the hatch.
Daedo would have preferred she focus on the task at hand rather than partake in small talk regarding the Svarski tournament. He remained silent while he made his way over to Titan Hyperion.
“I thought your mechs were awesome and what they did was awful. Everyone knows it was crap,” Krecke continued.
“I’m in Hyperion. Have you synced with the control system?” Daedo asked.
“Yes, it's coming online now. Is this the same as Titan Hyperion and Eos?”
“No! It’s an improvement. Plus, it has jumpjets activated. You need to watch your heat. If it's too low you won't get much thrust from the jets, and if it's too high it will vent or go into shutdown if the venting fails,” Daedo said.
“Can it vent underwater?” Krecke asked.
“Never tried it. I haven’t even modelled it,” Daedo admitted.
“The HUD is telling me there is enough hydrogen for a minute of jumpjet runtime. Is that accurate?” Krecke asked.
“Yes.”
“All models will have this amount?”
“Unless you want to carry autocannons or assault-cannons, they have a much higher space and weight requirement for ammunition,” Daedo said. “I want you to run with railguns and defensive measures against missiles and PPCs.”
“I read your brief, and I agree with the strategy. I am going to move around now, or do you want to spar?”
“Just get a handle of the movements. We have the topside arena for practice which you can use as much as you like. I will ship out one mech per day to the Mech Bay underneath the arena,” Daedo replied, “starting with two tomorrow.”
“That’s not a lot of practice time,” Krecke said. “It will be a week before we get a full complement and that will only leave a week for full practice.”
“I suggest you get the whole team prepared with their schedules clear for the first week of the term. Tell them to start their subjects now,” Daedo said.
“We are in the last two terms of our Academy education. Most of us are completing a thesis or projects in specialised subjects. The others need only to pilot, so it will be easy for them to accommodate you.” Krecke informed him.
“Speaking of members, I have your final team. Why is Romulus in it? I thought I was clear that he was to run the Gauntlet,” Daedo stated.
“He can be quite persuasive, and you did say, I had full authority over the team,” Krecke stated.
“He may be persuasive, but I am not convinced. We need the points from the Gauntlet, and he isn’t a very good team player from my analysis,” Daedo stated. “The fact he pushed his way into the squad is case in point. What happens when he doesn’t follow your orders in the field? Or worse, starts issuing counter orders?”
“This is speculation, do you not think he deserves a chance?” Krecke asked.
“If you want to give him a chance then do so. But if he disobeys one order, he is off the team entirely. You must give him this directive. If you allow any room for disruption, it will get out of control quickly. It needs to be black and white,” Daedo lectured Krecke. She was a talented tactician, the best in the Academy, but she was not a leader.
“Very well, I will do as you ask,” she replied, but she did not sound happy.
Daedo decided right then that he needed to assess the team during training and find out if they had a Vannier type. Someone who could lead while still offering support to the tactician. The tactician was vital, but so was leadership when it came to harmonising the team.
“You need to learn the range of movements. Let me run you through them,” Daedo stated after a minute’s contemplation.
They spent the next hour running through drills and putting the mech through its paces.
“I’m ready to instruct the team now,” Krecke said, “Thanks. It’s so much better than what we had just two months ago. I’d like to see it rated against the Templars.”
“You will find that out in the second round,” Daedo said.
“I know, I know,” she replied.
“I will get everyone inducted in the next few days. That way when we have the full team of eight, we can begin practice and drilling immediately,” Krecke stated. “Your particle barrier. I haven’t seen anything quite like it, did you invent it as well?”
“It has been a team effort. Thoth Squad One did the initial research, and we built on that,” Daedo replied. In truth, the mystery box gave him the next evolution upon request. The expert even offered a better model, but Daedo had to keep breakthroughs to a believable level.
“What do you call it? It has a gorgeous blue and green hue,” Krecke asked.
“I haven’t named it yet,” Daedo said.
“I was just up north during the break. The skies were beautiful like your shield. I think you could call it the Aurora Shield after the northern skies,” Krecke said kindly.
“I like that,” Daedo said honestly, “I have seen images but never been myself. I really like it. Okay sold. We will call it the Aurora Shield.”
“Do I get royalties?” Krecke asked cheekily and laughed away her joke.
“No, but if you manage to get the Academy promoted, I am willing to offer your team a bonus,” Daedo said. He had been planning this with Barran from the start, and the conversation led him in this direction.
“Oh? I am sure some of the squad will be very interested. As for me, I will do my best, with no reward necessary,” Krecke replied.
“I knew that about you already. But creds can help you achieve your goals. They can fund your research,” Daedo said. He knew Krecke was researching genetics and bioengineering.
“How much?” Krecke asked.
“If you win promotion, the pool is two hundred thousand bitcreds for the entire upper team,” Daedo stated.
Krecke whistled. The amount meant the more people she used, the smaller the share, she would have to be quiet about that part. “I have to be careful how we present this. If they know the more team members that are used, means a smaller share, then we will get a reluctance to change.”
“Make it merit-based. The base is ten thousand, and if they perform better, they will earn a larger share. Make me the judge, that way they aren’t pressuring you,” Daedo said.
“That works! And thank you. I know we have little chance of promotion, but twenty thousand bitcreds would fund me for years,” Krecke said passionately.
“Can I see the rest of your workshop?” She asked after a few minutes packing up.
“No,” Daedo replied to a stunned Krecke.
After a moment she tapped her cheek and asked, “What are you hiding over there?”
“Nothing major. We have most of the technology patented. As a rule, we don’t give tours to very smart people,” he replied, trying to make it sound flattering. He deliberately left off the part about trust; but the word still rang loud despite its absence.