The Eye of the Sahara Y: 2142
Inter-Academy Round 4 Fortescue Points: 418, Rank: 6, PR: 0.5225
Term: 3, Round: 4
Approximate Daedalus Financial Position: +100,000 bitcreds
----------------------------------------
Mace checked the status reports constantly as the medi-lab worked on her father. Once he was inside the medi-lab, the robotic arms and specialised, yet stunted, AI took over. It was of the machine learning variety whereby its self-coding was restricted to its area of expertise which, in this case, was the human body. CPU hosted AIs were to the cybernetic implant AIs that the cadets used as an autovan was to a mech. One was very good at a specific task whereas the other could do almost anything it applied itself to.
“It can manufacture its own nanobots,” Mace observed with slight surprise.
“It’s the best we could get,” Daedo replied.
They did not discuss the cost of the planet’s best medi-lab on rushed order as some things were more important than bitcreds. The surgery did not take long but, due to the prior anesthetics, Gabe did not regain consciousness for a few hours. Adele waited for him as he exited with the assistance of a pair of robotic arms which moved via the same mag technology which autocars used. Every sizable piece of equipment floated in the medi-lab and the smaller items were carried by the robotic arms. Adele had been keeping Gabe up to date during the three-day battle, when he came round on a regular basis, before she put him back under.
“Is everyone here?” he asked Mace, not wasting time on pleasantries.
Mace looked around, “Just us four,” she replied.
“No, I mean, did you get everyone from Nanterre as well as everyone from Daedalus including Daedo’s father and aunty?”
Daedo cleared his throat, “Cisse isn’t my aunty.”
Gabe inclined his head, “That’s a moot point. We need to get everyone here who could be construed to be someone that Daedo cared about because they’ll all be targeted.” Gabe limped as he took a few steps forward, “They want you Daedo, not because of the information you have but, because they think Nader will come for you. They won’t let you go even if you answered all their questions, not until they have Nader. Do you know if they are certain that she is an alien?” he asked.
“She fits the profile and, while no smoking gun has been found, it’s amazing that nothing has cleared her either. She is just too good with cybersecurity which doesn’t add up for a Master at an Academy. It’s over a seventy percent certainty that she is an alien after the incident where she detected the hybrid spybot even when we can’t do that. We simply don’t have the technology, at least not in the way she did it. By all rights, it should have remained completely undetected
“That was a good strategy. You would either have data from conversations or confirmation of her advanced technology,” Daedo observed.
Gabe nodded, “It was Adele’s idea except our daughter refused for the longest time to plant it on you,” Adele added, looking over at her child.
Mace merely hung her head looking at the ground in silence.
“Gabe, we need to get you into a bodysuit,” Adele stated as he was butt naked.
He nodded and was led by Adele towards the temporary living quarters. He stopped and turned his head after a number of steps, “Get everyone here and we can discuss what we know about the Organisation as soon as I’m dressed.”
Daedo turned to Mace, “Is it safe to have a permanent connection to the net?”
Mace shook her head, “It’s never safe. The only defence that was uncrackable, that I know of, was the one used by Master Nader.”
“Then you or your mother will have to do your best to ensure it remains free from intrusion. We can’t live isolated from the world and do what we need to do,” Daedo stated.
“Okay,” Mace replied. Her mood was dulled by the prior conversation because it still bothered her that she had planted the spybot on Daedo.
All the occupants of the base gathered in the carrier which was still parked on the surface. Two were in mechs and the rest were in bodysuits or exos. They could use the equipment on the carrier including communications and, by removing everyone from the base, it allowed the construction bots free access to progress with some of the major changes that were planned.
Daedo began the meeting with a short introduction and explanation, “We will begin the meeting by gaining some understanding of the immediate threat which has brought us all here. I am sorry that everyone has gotten caught up in this as it was never Mace’s or my intention for any of that to happen. Gabe and Adele will tell us what they know of the entity simply known as the Organisation.”
Gabe stood taking the floor from Daedo with Adele standing slightly behind him for support. “Adele and I met shortly after recruitment when we had both recently graduated from our academies specialising in different fields. As you may know, Adele is a cyber warfare specialist while I am more of a garden variety information gatherer. Our mission was to find alien infiltrators and interference, and the Organisation would root it out. On occasion, we would be investigating people, not aliens, who were designated as conspirators or insurrectionists, people who sided with alien influence. After extensive training, profiling and indoctrination we were always on the front line, so we have little understanding of the Organisation other than operational. We do, however, know almost everything about how they operate.”
“Policy will place the species above the individual which is one of the core doctrines,” he emphasised. This means that a single life does not matter especially if that life is increasing the risk to the species, even if its minute. We have personally routed four suspected aliens, but the majority of our work was gathering information on conspirators,” he looked towards Adele.
She took over his speech, “Daedo is classed as an insurrectionist and we, by association, will be classed as conspirators. In the eyes of the Organisation, our lives are inconsequential. If they manage to take Daedo alive, it will not matter if it costs all of our lives. Also, if you go back to your homes or an academy or go into hiding, no matter where you are, including remaining here, the Organisation will want, initially, to use you as collateral to bring in Daedo and, if they already have him, they may dispose of you as an enemy of mankind.”
“So, if I give myself up, everyone else can go back to their lives?” Daedo asked, confused
Gabe shook his head, “Maybe your friends, but it will never be over for Ameline, Adele and I. We are worse than conspirators, we are classed as traitors.”
“You’re not giving yourself up to them!” Vannier shouted a little too loudly and emotionally. “I don’t care if I have to live in the desert and emancipate. You will surrender over my dead body.”
“Ditto,” Barran said over the comms. He was in one of the mechs outside.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
“I’ve already decided I’m staying,” Picard stated her commitment in a fashion that did not endorse argument.
There was still Kang and Axel-Zero, both of whom were quiet. The gathering in the carrier remained in awkward silence for a time until Axel-Zero broke the disquiet, “I want to stay,” was all she said.
Vannier was about to move the conversation along when Kang raised her hand and asked, “Is my father in danger?”
Gabe and Adele knew little of the Daedalus particulars as Mace only reported on Master Nader. Gabe asked, “What is his relationship with Daedalus other than you?”
“His mech is sponsored and designated as a Daedalus mech,” Vannier answered.
Gabe nodded, “He’ll be under surveillance so ensure that a negative relationship with Daedo is communicated.”
“Kang?”
“Yes?” she asked.
“Would you be able to tell your father that you are being kept here against your will?” Gabe asked.
“If I did that then it would cause so many issues like involving the police and the news outlets, and he would try to come here!”
“And then we could set him straight in person,” Gabe answered smiling.
“Oh, you’re evil,” Barran observed. It was the perfect misdirection to get into personal contact with Mister Kang.
“They know you are capable of this strategy,” Daedo stated.
“Ah, but am I here?” Gabe replied, “because Adele and I will be leaving as soon as we manufacture a few needed pieces of equipment and steal a couple of those life support exos for the run.”
“And do what?” Mace asked suddenly alive, alert and distraught at the same time.
“Darling,” her mother said, sadly, “your father works best out there, and he needs me with him because he can’t do it alone.”
“We will find out what we can. We may know how the Organisation operates but we don’t know why. While I was under, I reflected on the last twenty years including the assignments and the type of people who were labelled conspirators, and something doesn’t add up. I realise deep down I’ve had an uneasy feeling for a long time, and it has taken Mace’s revolution to force us to act but, now that it's happened, I’m not sorry or mad at her in the least.” He looked lovingly at his daughter.
“I would give my life for you. You should know that I would have never placed loyalty to the Organisation above my love for you but, in the end, it wasn’t a decision at all, we were careful to never appear to take your side or yours, Daedo.” Gabe looked at all the cadets or ex-cadets as they now were. “The Organisation will never stop, but neither will we and if anyone can uncover their dirty secrets, its Adele,” he said the last part looking lovingly at his wife.
Adele took over the talking role again, “They don’t have a military arm. If you stay here and continue to improve your defences, you will be safe. A bombing of the area will not affect you, if you are a thousand metres under bedrock, and it would not achieve their aim of catching Nader.”
“What if they catch Nader?” Mace asked.
“Then Daedo will be safe, everyone will be monitored, but we will remain traitors,” Adele replied.
“I doubt they will catch Master Nader,” Daedo replied.
“Is there anything we should know?” Adele asked Daedo.
He thought for a moment and simply said, “Master Nader is not the enemy.”
----------------------------------------
Over the next two weeks, a lot of things happened. Kang almost broke her father with the news that she was stuck in the Sahara, a virtual captive. Vannier received permission from her parents under the threat of emancipation. Ikaros and Cisse were airlifted by Marais together with three carrier’s worth of equipment from Nanterre. Axel-Zero was in talks with her parents and was at an impasse. Barran began emancipation proceedings without contacting his family.
The Base was brought online while Mace implemented her mother’s instructions regarding security. Daedo oversaw construction of the new deep base. He also released the new designs of the Particle Projection Canon and the Aurora shield to Axel-Zero to register on the IPO so that Daedalus could sell and earn royalties.
Time passed quickly, the academy weeks flew by and Fortescue continued to perform satisfactorily with the equipment but without the tactical or strategic support from Daedalus. Late one Friday afternoon, a lone figure garbed in a desert bodysuit crested the mountain range to the north. The wind carried fine particles of sand as it swept past him, pulling at his mask, hair and pack, and anything that wasn’t firmly attached. He carried no weapon other than a staff made from organic wood. It was an ancient weapon and a tool at the same time. He ran down the range in a loping fashion, a run that was both fast and sustainable. He checked a small device to ensure his direction was correct and ran directly towards the base. Inside the base, alerts were pinging on seven separate HUDs. The continuous Mech guard had been abandoned, but sortie drills had their response time in under a minute.
“How did he get so close?” Mace asked.
“Barran, Picard, you’re up and everyone else in exos,” Daedo ordered and then responded to Mace. “He is small, and there is only one of him so maybe the app designated him as a stray animal which we will review later.”
As Ikaros appeared inside the mech bay, he followed one of the cadets who had run by in an exo from the new workshop. The mech bay was the staging area which exited directly to the surface through a dock which had two massive blast doors at either end. The last door was at the same angle as the surface and, when it opened, sand and hot air would enter the dock from the inhospitable expanse of desert.
As the man ran down the mountain range Squad Zero collected on the surface. They had five exos and two mechs and five railguns and two PPCs which were supported by fourteen sentry guns. The firepower at hand could take down a couple of squads of standard mechs easily.
“What does he want?” Barran asked intrigued.
“It’s not Mister Kang,” Vannier observed seriously, but everyone laughed at the image of the portly Mister Kang running through the desert as if he was on an afternoon stroll.
Myrmidon interpreted the sensor data and provided it to Daedo, namely, equipment, height, weight, run speed, and hair colour. His facial features were obscured by his desert breathing mask which supported the water recycling system of his bodysuit. It reminded Daedo of someone they had met briefly. “Picard?” Daedo stated her name in the form of a question.
“Yes, Sir?” she replied formally as was her style. Daedo was now officially the commander of the Daedalus Private Military which included everyone except Axel-Zero, Kang and the adults.
“Is there any reason for your father to come here?” He asked.
Her discipline went out the window. She had sent her request as Barran had advised and, much to her surprise, her parents accepted it almost immediately and had given their permission for her to join the Daedalus Private Military. The lack of protest both surprised and concerned her at the time so she felt something wasn’t quite right. The apprehensive feeling had materialised and was travelling on foot of all things towards them and, like a storm, it didn’t ask permission, it just came. “Oh feck,” she breathed.
Barran laughed over the comms. It was a burst of thigh-slapping raucous laughter which annoyed Picard because it only served to heighten her panic.
“Don’t fire,” she stated as she watched the man run on the visuals as she had zero doubt it was her father. He had his own style which could not be mimicked, not to the same degree of competence while carrying a two-metre staff.
“Everyone back inside,” Daedo ordered. “Picard, change into your exo and come back out. I will remain here.”
Picard was one of the two who sortied in a mech. She and Barran were in the same rotation. The pair waited for the demon wolf-soldier to arrive. Despite the heat, rocks, sand and dry wind, he ate up the last ten kilometres in under fifty minutes. He stopped twenty metres from Daedo and Picard.
“I am Daedo, commander of this base and this is cadet Picard,” Daedo said formally while indicating Specialist Picard’s daughter.
Specialist Picard simply said, “Is this where I sign up for the Daedalus Private Military?”
His daughter was stunned. She had expected him to attempt to take her home and that this was merely a ruse. She struggled to make sense of the request.
“How?” she asked.
“I discharged,” Edgar Picard stated.
“Accepted,” Daedo stated. “Axel-Zero has the necessary forms so please follow me.”
Daedo walked inside, leaving Picard standing outside in stunned silence. She looked off into the distance imagining her future. After a few minutes had passed, she shook her head and yelled through the comms for all the squad to hear, “Stop! You don’t know what you’re getting into!”
“Your father seems quite satisfied with the terms and our situation,” Daedo replied calmly.
“No, not him, us!” she exclaimed.
“Ah …,” Daedo replied. “I understand now, whatever doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
After some discussion, Vannier and Daedo came up with a plan for former Specialist Picard.
“I am very pleased you decided to join us,” Vannier informed Edgar Picard.
He merely gave a simple nod of the head in response. They were seated in their new cafeteria with adjacent bot kitchen. It was approximately 1500m underground and doubled as a meeting room until the lower priority facilities were built.
“We have worked up a role and responsibility document for you,” Vannier continued.
Daedo pulled up the box chart on a screen. “We will make you a Chief, as we are still currently cadets and in training and in line with your area of expertise, we think Chief of Physical Training is an ideal role for you and due to being a private military you will hold the rank of Master Sergeant and accrue wages for this role, in addition to Chief of an Academy.”
“Wait,” Chief Picard said, “Are you saying you are starting an academy as well as a private military?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Daedo closed the screen and turned to face Chief Picard.
“Yes.”