House Rank: 1, Squad Zero

M1 Rank: Unknown

Term 1, Round 1

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A tall girl – tall compared to Daedo – with dark hair, thin lips, and cute freckles across her nose and cheeks looked at him with amusement in her big brown eyes. “Verbal contracts do not hold any credence in military law. This academy is under military law, which protects it from most wrongful death cases.”

Daedo had been burnt on his first salvo.

Myrmidon: Sorry.

“That does not matter,” Vannier said, stepping forward. She looked at the House Thoth members standing around. “I know it’s our second day, but you may regret selling out your house. We’re going to be in the same House for six years, and this is how you want to start? What will everyone say about you?”

Myrmidon: Oh, she’s good. We have much improvement to make.

The tall freckled girl looked Vannier up and down. “But you are House Thoth; you are designed to serve us. Thoth has never come in the top three houses in any year, ever. Your whole house was created with the creed, ‘Calculation and Research.’ This is why we approached your squads to purchase slots. We have three in a row, and this will be the fourth. Now, what will everyone say about them? Nothing, because three other teams already sold out. If anything, they will praise Squad Two for getting more bitcreds out of us.”

“One thousand bitcreds,” Daedo said. That equated to twenty per session, whereas Horus had only offered fifteen.

The girl opened her mouth to speak, but Daedo cut her off. “Our wager is that we will kick your ass at the end of term two competition, plus we will duel you for the slots you have already purchased during the term. We will pay and take this one off Squad Two. If you win, you can win it off us, and it will cost you nothing. If you win the next weekly match, you can win our second slot too.”

“So when’s the first match?” she asked, smiling brightly.

“Give us two weeks to put our teamwork in order,” he said. “Our first match can be at the beginning of week three and our second match the beginning of week five.”

Gaumont: What the frig are you doing?

Barran: It’s okay. We need to teach these pricks a lesson.

Mace: That only works if we win.

“I hate to sound like a stickler, but what is the form of the match?” Freckles asked.

“Survival seven versus seven,” Daedo said. Survival was the match system closest to reality. When a person died in the match, there was no respawn. It was a team version of Last Man Standing. It didn’t necessarily have to be equal numbers on both sides; it could be any number.

Freckles laughed lightly. “Bold move, Thoth, but stupid. I’m afraid you just lost two slots and over a thousand bitcreds.”

Daedo grinned back. “I guess we need it in writing since verbal contracts and someone’s word means nothing here.” With that statement, he glared at Squad Two. Daedo thought they were short-sighted and cowards. Even if their goal was to be engineers, a great engineer would need to know the effect of tweaks and changes to systems. And the only real way to make worthwhile modifications was to test them properly in the conditions they were meant to be utilised within. Combat conditions.

And Daedo’s own squad were cowards by immediately accepting Freckles’ view that Thoth was crap. Even Barran admitted his sister kept beating him due to her superior tuning and modification ability.

The Horus Squad Zero members left. No one had spoken except Freckles. She was the undisputed leader of their squad.

“Do you know who that was?” Axel-Zero asked.

“No idea,” Daedo said.

“That was Karine Fortescue … as in, Fortescue Group.”

Except for Picard, all the others knew. Karine was a celebrity in their circle. Daughter of Xavier Fortescue, one of three children to the CEO of Fortescue Group. Her grandfather was the chairman of the board, and her mother was head of acquisitions for the group. The Fortescue Group itself owned over twenty subsidiaries and had significant holdings in another hundred. The Axel, Gaumont, Barran, Vannier and Mace families were poor in comparison. Even in the top one per cent, there were stratospheres of wealth and power.

Barran laughed. “Then you’re even; she had no idea who you were either.”

The cadets now had some free time before dinner. There was no strict lights-out policy at the academy; the military program was weirdly open to the cadets’ own recognisance. They were monitored closely by their house master, her robots, and some of their chiefs, but were otherwise free to eat when they wanted and sleep when they wanted.

This was not an unusual regime for Daedo. He had no idea how the other cadets coped and did not really care that much. Outside of his squad, he didn’t pay much attention to the other cadets.

He now had a clear goal. Besides getting on top of his subjects, he wanted to beat House Horus. Before arriving at the academy, he had no clear plan, no goals, no ambition. He was here because of his mother’s wish. But after meeting his squadmates and listening to the orientation, he set new goals for himself.

To Daedo’s surprise, he actually liked some of his squadmates. This was a new sensation for him; he never really had any friends before. His only companion in life up until this point was Myrmidon. And the only people he talked to regularly, other than Myrmidon, were his father and Cisse. And those relationships were truncated.

Vannier was interesting, talented, she had a keen mind, and she was taller and older than him. He thought she was pretty, but his feelings on the subject did not go much past that.

Axel-Zero was friendly and helpful. He couldn’t really say he knew much more about her strengths yet, but they had not been tested. She certainly smashed him on the obstacle course, but it was not lost on him that she had been kind and supportive of him since he arrived. The only time she had let him down was when she didn’t believe he was Daedalus.

Barran was not friendly, but Daedo didn’t find him antagonistic either. He went from brainless to funny in a heartbeat. They were on different wavelengths entirely. Daedo respected his physical prowess; Barran even left Picard in the dirt. And Barran also trusted him enough to request his AI, which meant a lot to Daedo.

Mace was clearly smart. She didn’t give much away, which is what he would have been like if he kept his mouth closed. Between Myrmidon and Nader, Daedo felt he had been encouraged to reveal much more than he would have if they had not pushed him. And he wanted to find out more about Mace. Her white hair and sharp blue eyes made her look exotic as well.

Gaumont was still a child in the head. Of all his squadmates, Daedo had the least respect for him. They were thirteen and Daedo twelve, but these were elite cadets now turned cadets. There were not many top-tier military academies in the EU (twelve to be exact), and his squadmates were in the top thirty-five of M1 in Fortescue. So, to make it into Squad Zero Thoth meant that Gaumont was incredibly smart. But contrasted with his academic success, Gaumont had demonstrated maturity well below his squadmates on several occasions.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Daedo respected Picard, but she was not open-minded. Clearly, she worked very hard to get where she was but was limited by her thinking and prejudices. Hopefully, the philosophy course would help her. She would certainly be an asset against Horus.

Daedo: I am going to survey the exos. Everything in three subjects will hinge on the choice. Does anyone want to come?

Picard, Vannier, Mace, and Axel-Zero all responded in the positive immediately.

Barran: I’ll just go with a heavy; everyone uses heavies.

Mace: Is that trust or laziness?

Barran: Feel free to choose one of those as well. I’m going outside while it’s still light. Being underground all the time is killing me.

Gaumont: I’m going to get a start on the math and physics tutes.

Daedo: Okay.

He then limited the conversation to the squaddies coming with him to the Thoth mech bay.

Daedo: We have no time, during the week, to become familiar, tweak, and improve functionality. I will spend all my weekends to this end.

“We spend enough time in these things,” Vannier said after removing her helmet. “I’m taking mine off.”

Daedo was used to playing a VR game for ten hours straight; wearing a helmet for a couple of hours was not a stretch.

“Okay,” Mace said as she pulled her own helmet off, and the rest followed bodysuit.

They jumped on a travelator and set off for the exo bay. It was only moments before they arrived.

“Do you have a strategy in mind?” Vannier asked.

“Do you know enough about them to have a strategy?” Axel-Zero asked.

Mace was quiet, as usual, but her lack of words was not to be misconstrued with consent to a plan.

Daedo knew exactly where she was coming from because it was his normal modus operandi. “I want to hear your thoughts on the four main types first, starting with Mace,” he said, putting her on the spot.

She cleared her throat and said, “Mesh is the fastest and most agile. It needs to have light, fast weapons, or long-range weapons. It has the least resistance and damage absorption, the lowest strength modifier at 1.2, and the least air supply. It has a mobility factor of 1.5. Due to being the lightest, it has the best jump height and distance, and its burn rate is low in comparison to the other bodysuits. Its jumpjets will last forty-five seconds on top of an already fast bodysuit.

“The light exo has a lower mobility 1.25 factor, but its damage absorption and resistance are twice that of a mesh exo. Its strength factor is increased, which accounts for its weight, in the end, equating to a 1.5 strength multiplier. Its jumpjets have a thirty-second burn time, and the increased weight offsets the storage capacity.

“The medium exo mobility drops down to status quo. The increased strength and armour weight eat up all the gains. It has jumpjets with a thirty-second burn time, whether used all at once or in tiny spurts. Its strength multiplier is two, allowing the wearer to use the heaviest weapons. A forty-kilogram minigun is possible even for a small cadet. A strong one will be able to run and carry it as if it were a twenty-kilo lightweight mod. And its damage reduction and absorption are double that of light. It can take quite a hit.

“The heavy requires a strong person with adequate stamina to operate. Due to its armour and strength mods, it is the slowest exo by far. It will reduce the pilot’s speed by a factor of 0.8 – about twenty per cent. It has enough fuel to allow the jumpjets to operate for thirty seconds. It can wield the largest weapons, and the strength multiplier is five. You can punch through concrete walls with this exo. Its armour’s absorption and damage reduction are double that of the medium. It would be truly difficult to take down, and under direct fire, in a one-on-one, it will always win – assuming it can hit its target as often as it is getting hit.”

Mace finished her description.

Exo Type

Strength

Factor (x)

Armour

Value

Mobility

Factor (X)

Jumpjet (runtimes)

Standard Mesh

1.2

10

1.50

45

Standard Light

1.5

20

1.25

30

Standard Medium

2.0

40

1.00

30

Standard Heavy

5.0

80

0.80

30

“You really know your stuff,” Picard observed.

Daedo thought about the descriptions. In truth, he only had a passing familiarity.

Daedo: Have you found anything in addition to that information?

Myrmidon: The lighter exos can be tweaked for gains in mobility, whereas for the heavy ones, gains in armour are difficult with no advancement in the alloy material. I think we could get higher gains from lighter mechs. Loadouts will be a determining factor as well.

“I’ll take a light exo,” Daedo said. “I think I will be able to tweak it more than the other types, and it will support most weapons I would use. But really, everyone else needs to pick an exo that suits their strengths, style, and weapon choice.”

“What about strategic group makeup?” Vannier asked.

“I don’t think we’re ready for that yet,” Daedo said. “We know too little about each other and the exos. For everyone, we know seven mesh exos would be the best strategy.”

“I like fast exos and dual pistols,” Axel-Zero said. “I think I would go mesh or light. What do you think, Daedo?”

“If you choose light, then we can double down on any gains I can come up with,” he said.

“What weapon are you thinking of using, Picard?” Vannier asked.

“Railgun, two-handed,” Picard said. “It does the most damage at range if you’re accurate, and I can use it with a light exo as well.”

“I’m a good shot with a railgun as well,” Vannier said. “We’ll be a duo.”

That left Mace. “Can you add enough strength to the light for the loadout to hold forty kilos of traps?” she asked.

Daedo thought about it. “What weapons?” he asked.

“Launcher,” she said.

“Ah, so you launch most of your traps?”

“Some are usable off the shelf with the launcher – all the grenade types, EMP, goo and smoke. And we could try to modify a trip, and mimic for the launcher; otherwise they’re thrown.”

“Do you know how much you can carry in combat?”

“Last time we played in the AR arena, with a bodysuit, I could carry a twenty-kilo loadout.”

He was genuinely impressed. For a girl of Mace’s size, fighting with twenty kilos – even if some was strapped to her body – was a feat. “So I would need to get it from 1.5 to a strength factor of two?” he surmised. “I really can’t say until I spend a weekend on it. We are assuming that I can tweak it a little, but that is a massive increase.”

“If you can, it would be ideal,” she said. “The mobility of the light will enhance the launcher’s hit-and-run style. I can assist you with the modifications as well. It’s something I can do.”

Daedo nodded. He was not surprised. Mace was rank three behind Vannier and always spoke intelligently.

“It looks like we will be a light brigade,” Vannier stated.

“What about Gaumont?” Axel-Zero asked.

Daedo shrugged. “He can do his own thing.”

“We should do something to bring him into the team,” Vannier suggested.

“That’s your speciality,” Picard said.

Vannier frowned. “I know, but … we have nothing in common.”

“Just praise him,” Picard said. “He seems like the type who needs an ego boost.”

Vannier nodded in acceptance of her role as team binder.

“If we book out the lights and store them in our rooms, where do we work with them on the weekend, if not here in the bay using the tools provided?” Daedo asked.

“Can we take them offsite?” Picard asked.

“We’ll have to check the rules,” Axel-Zero said.

Daedo: Myrmidon, can you check the rules regarding exo handling and see if there are any limitations to modifying?

Myrmidon: We should work on them at home on the weekend. Your father’s workshop has all these tools and more, and he has a high amount of experience.

Daedo: We would need permission, and we’ll need to purchase more tools and instruments.

Myrmidon: The rules preclude taking any mech or exo off campus, with two exceptions: repair bays in the Paris district, and for approved competitions, where they must be logged in and out.

Daedo: What are the restrictions that surround repair bays?

Myrmidon: There is a definition of a repair bay. It also needs to be registered, which is not in the rules, but in the procedure for shipping equipment to a repair bay. I will investigate further.

“We may have to tweak them here,” Daedo said.

Axel-Zero thought about that. “It’s not a bad thing. It just might be crowded on the weekend.”

“I like the sound of our own workshop if we can make it work,” Mace said.

“I will ask Master Nader,” Vannier said. “She might be able to help and let us know if there’s a precedent.”

“If we do get an offsite workshop, a few of us are going to have to purchase tools, instruments, and equipment,” Daedo informed them.

Axel-Zero shrugged. “It won’t be a problem. My company, Vannier’s, and Barran’s can supply most of the gear.”

Master Nader: Daedo, Vannier, Axel-Zero, Mace, and Picard – report to my office immediately.