House: Thoth, Rank: 1/255, Squad Zero, Squad Leader
M1 Rank: ?/1,275
Term 1, Round 1
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“Etana!” Cisse exclaimed, giving him an embarrassing hug. She managed this by leaning out and pulling him in from her floating chair.
“Argh, it’s Daedo here,” Daedo said, pushing her off him. Since he had been working on exos all weekend, he wondered why she still rode her hoverchair. It would be a simple thing to make her robotic legs with cybernetics and even an AI to control them.
He looked at her seriously for a change. “Why do you use that chair?” he asked bluntly.
For a moment, she looked confused and shocked by the question, but she quickly recovered, smiling. “There are many reasons, but mainly because I prefer it,” she finally said.
It wasn’t really an answer. Obviously, she preferred it as it was her choice, but he wanted to know why she preferred it. However, if she did not want to share, he wasn’t going to pry. If Daedo could empathize with others on one thing, it would certainly be the lack of a need to share.
He plonked the compact cold fusion reactor onto her lap.
“This is what we have right now,” he said. “It is capable of 120 kVA, which is ample for the systems and subsystems, but even a heavy exo only carries enough plasma for 130 megajoules of deliverable power.”
Cisse frowned. “That’s thirty per cent utilization – that’s terrible. Is this a gen two reactor?”
Daedo shrugged.
“The magnetic field containing the plasma is probably the issue since the reactor is encapsulated in the field,” she said. “The magnetic field surrounds the plasma, with the next layer being the transfer blanket with the reactor at its core. A spherical shape is the standard design for this sort of small reactor. Do you need any thermal energy output of the reactor or just electrons?”
“Quite the opposite. I’d prefer a heatsink if possible. Some systems already generate heat, especially ordnance such as plasma cannons.”
“What is the scope?” Cisse asked.
Cisse was effectively asking Daedo to outline what he wanted for an outcome and any limitations that were applicable. He thought about the question for a moment.
“The main energy consumers are the jumpjets,” he said. “We also have to power systems for the strength and speed of the exo as well as all weapon systems. The physical enhancements are delivered from the backpack via hydraulics, as well as the jumpjets. The main energy consumers not on the back are the weapon delivery systems, which are usually handheld or attached to the shoulder at best.” Daedo pulled up his exo schematic and dropped all layers other than the power delivery schematic.
“Are we limited by size or technology?” Cisse asked.
“There are no rules that limit the reactor specifically. However, the overall suit has design limitations in regards to size and weight. We can afford more weight if we have more power, but this shape and size are limited to this outline.” He pulled up a new schematic showing how much space the reactor could take on the back.
“What is the max power draw of all systems combined?”
“That changes based on the weapon loadout, but if we assume a railgun, two jumpjets, and all other systems, we are aiming for over seventy megajoules.”
“Are you not making these systems more efficient?” she asked.
Daedo shook his head. “No, on the contrary, we want to increase their power. And we really want to increase the runtime on the jumpjets.”
“When do you need it by?”
“We need seven by next Sunday if possible. But if it takes more time, we can use the reactors provided,” he said. “It could be possible to tweak what we have to deliver a superior solution in a few weeks as well.”
“A few weeks?” Cisse asked. “You are a hard taskmaster. There are off-the-shelf products you could buy, but they aren’t cheap.”
The latest generation of compact cold fusion reactors of this size was not cheap at all. They would cost more than Daedo’s home, in the thousand-bitcred range.
“We’ve already spent too much on this place, and we’re supposed to be engineering our own equipment as part of the academy’s projects,” he said. “I was hoping you could throw a few together for us?”
“You are supposed to build your own reactors as part of an M1 academy project?” Cisse asked, incredulous.
Mace walked in chuckling at the question. “No, that’s just Daedo. We are meant to look for ways to improve our equipment and take on a project for tech studies. Only Daedo wants to rebuild a whole new exo in his first week. I’m Mace, by the way.” She held out her hand to Cisse.
“Oh,” Cisse said, sizing up Mace and shaking her outstretched hand. “I’m Cisse – Daedo’s aunt, sort of.”
“Oh, I know about you. He mentioned you earlier when we discussed our power problems. He said you would sort it out,” Mace said with a smile. She left out the part where he mentioned her in his letter to the group on their first day.
“If it’s meant to be a project, and I do all the work, isn’t that cheating?” Cisse asked.
“The academy expects us to use all resources available. There is no such thing as cheating in war,” Daedo answered, using Chief Albert’s logic.
“Let me think of a cost-effective solution then,” Cisse said. “As for tweaking and tuning your current reactors, that will not be hard. I could change the magnet conductor’s outer casing and inject more plasma, increasing its efficiency. The reactor will not need to change since it’s already seventy per cent over capacity.”
“I knew it wouldn’t take you long,” he said. “Where will you build the new reactors? Can you do it here?”
“I have no idea what you have here. You need to show me around,” Cisse said.
“Oh how rude, and he needs to introduce you to everyone,” Mace said.
Daedo felt that Mace calling him rude for not interacting socially in a proper manner was a low blow. She was the one who usually said nothing unless pressed.
After a tour and a round of introductions, Cisse gave her verdict.
“I can bring a few pieces of equipment and calibration instruments from my lab to complete the works here,” she said. “The fact that you can manufacture the superconductive materials is fantastic. I have a program we can put into a robot assistant as well.”
“We don’t have any robots,” Vannier answered.
“Ah, we can remedy that,” Ikaros said. “I’ll bring in three tomorrow. Once programmed, they can work all week, even when you’re at the academy.”
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“So as long as we order supplies, they can keep manufacturing fibres and materials day and night,” Daedo thought out loud. “That’s awesome.”
“The first exo is almost ready,” Ikaros said. “It just needs the interface, reactor, accessories, and weapons added.”
“Let’s get cracking; I really want to test this before we go to bed,” Daedo said.
Axel-Zero grinned. “Who’s going to bed? I’m too excited.”
“I will be – I’m beat,” Daedo said. He’d been working nonstop since his twenty kilometre run in the morning. It had been twelve hours of problem-solving, tweaking, designing, and being the central resource for everyone. He had only stopped to eat a few times, and that was just to scoff something down in ten minutes.
“We should go down to the river for a run,” Picard suggested. “That will refresh you.”
Daedo stared at her like she was crazy.
“I do my best thinking when I run,” Barran said.
“You should run more often then,” Picard teased.
“Daedo, I can put this together,” Ikaros said. “You should go for a run and clear your head. When you get back you can test it out.”
“Okay, okay.” Daedo felt cornered and manipulated into taking a break.
“I’m coming too,” Mace said, followed by a chorus of me toos. All the cadets left Cisse and Ikaros behind at the workshop.
The path along the river Seine was lit, but even if it wasn’t, the cadets had enough sensors on their bodysuits to run in complete darkness.
“I had an idea,” Picard said, running behind Daedo, keeping up with his pace easily.
“What’s that?” he asked between breaths.
She pulled alongside him and pointed to a metal armband she was wearing. “I have these on my arms, legs, back, and stomach. In all, it weighs twenty kilos, but you could start at ten. Even ten is difficult and will make a big difference.”
“Ah,” he said, “are you trying to kill me?” He was amazed she could keep up with him while wearing an extra twenty kilos.
She laughed. “No, you misunderstand. If you wear these for a few days a week and during your obstacle course practice runs, you will get much stronger. And when it comes time to complete your best time on the obstacle course, you’ll feel like you’re flying when you don’t have them on.”
Daedo just thought it sounded like torture. But his competitive nature talked him into it. He was behind his squadmates and other cadets in physical training. And if he wanted to perform well in an exo, he would need to improve – especially given that his preferred strategy probably included a heavy swordlance. The more he thought about strategy, he realized that a short-range weapon may be better than a melee weapon. If the melee weapon could not pull off a one-shot kill then dual pistols like Axel-Zero had, or a large calibre gun could be a better option.
Other than the bet with Horus, he had plenty of time to experiment with different weapons. The fact they could be modified or built from scratch made tactics infinitely more complex than CyberMech with its set ordnance and loadouts.
“Picard,” Daedo said as they continued running, “what do you know about large calibre short-range guns.”
“You mean 12.7mm rounds?” she asked.
“They would be awesome for a railgun, but I am thinking a short-range weapon … something with an exploding round,” Daedo said.
“Explode on impact or one that explodes before impact?” Picard asked.
“There are rounds you can explode remotely?”
“Yes. Usually, the rifle has a laser sight, and as the round approaches the target, it explodes a hundred mills in front of them, causing a cone of shrapnel to spread. But for exos and mechs, armour-piercing rounds are more effective. “I think a 12.7 round gun is great at medium range. Even an old gun like an M2HB packs a punch into mech armour given modern ordnance.”
“If I did use a 12.7mm round, we might as well design a short-barrel railgun, so I can swing it around faster,” Daedo said. “The faster the speed of the round, the more damage it will inflict.”
“Yeah and there’s no reason you can’t use a high explosive round in a railgun,” Picard said.
“What about a PPC?” Axel-Zero asked, joining the conversation.
“Their power consumption versus damage output is poor, a useful PPC would take too long to develop. And I would prefer a shorter barrel for close range,” he said. “The longer the barrel, the slower it is to pan.”
Vannier joined in as well. “I heard one of our affiliate patent companies is working on a plasma shield.”
“Now that is interesting.” Daedo was intrigued about how a plasma shield could work.
They ran on for a while discussing different weapons.
“I think I’ll stick with the swordlance for now,” Daedo said. “That, and the grenades. And when the work on the railgun is done, I’ll try a shorter barrel version of it.”
“If it outdamages pistols significantly, I may switch too,” Axel-Zero said.
“The pressure is all on us now, Picard,” Vannier said.
“I’m used to carrying my own weight and then some,” Picard said, indicating the weights she was wearing.
Vannier snorted. “Yes, I noticed.” She changed the subject. “Daedo, if the exos are ready on Sunday night, when will we put them in for testing and update the AR?”
“I was thinking we should book them in for the following Monday,” he said, “so there’s no record of the increased effectiveness – of the armour at least – until our wager match with Horus.”
“Oh, smart thinking,” she said.
“And we’ll have an extra week to make tweaks and improvements to the design, which we’ll need after testing during the week. We have a long way to go. Don’t be surprised if we’re not making small upgrades and changes weekly,” he informed them.
“We really need to work on making some creds. Those materials are not cheap.”
“Well, if an opportunity comes up, we should jump on it,” Axel-Zero said. “Vannier, how are you doing with a patent for Daedo’s AI foundation?”
“These things take a long time,” Mace said. “It may be months before it starts making creds. I’m sure some companies will start selling it though. It’s just a matter of getting it registered, being offered to the companies, then they market and sell. Lastly, the royalties are paid quarterly at best. I doubt anyone will agree to an advance.”
Axel-Zero frowned. “Why not? I know Daedo is an unknown, but if the product is good, they should pay.”
“The lawyers and our sales agent will get an advance if they can. We’ll just have to wait and see,” Mace said.
Barran had run ahead and was inspecting the outside of their workshop when they arrived back. “You know, I reckon we could put a climbing wall down the side, in the yard, and maybe something on the roof,” he suggested. “It’s flat up there.”
“A climbing wall is a great idea,” Picard said. “If we’re here all weekend, we should do some workouts. We could also put a gym on the gunnery range and testing bay level. Or in the offices on the top level.”
“If we have robots doing a lot of the work, we don’t have to be here all weekend,” Daedo said.
Vannier came up beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Yes, but it's ours, and it’s nice to get away from the academy and our tiny rooms.”
“Did you see the old mech in the yard?” Barran asked. “Follow me.”
The six cadets walked around to the yard which consisted of dump bins, old crates and unused pallets, and a tonne of junk metal and parts.
“Look behind here,” he said, and after digging through a pile of scrap, they could all see the six-metre mech.
“All its armour is missing,” Picard said.
“And it has no weapons,” Axel-Zero added.
“But still,” Barran said, “we own our very own mech!”
Daedo inspected the mech. It was ancient, and its titanium alloy frame was extremely heavy compared to modern composites.
“They don’t make them like this anymore,” Barran said.
“Maybe for a good reason,” Mace retorted.
Daedo began to consider it. Everything they learned while developing the exos could be transferred to the six-metre. It was just on a larger scale. The guns were larger, the armour heavier, and the reactor was a decent size. The main difference would be manoeuvrability; he doubted any mech could be as agile as an exo.
“I’m going inside. I want to test the exo,” Daedo informed his squad.
“Oh, I need to see this,” Barran said, and they followed Daedo down into the testing bay that Vannier, Axel-Zero, and Picard had worked so hard to clean and organise.
Myrmidon: This will be interesting. I’m looking forward to seeing how our design works in reality.
Myrmidon spoke to Daedo as he got into the exo. Ikaros and Cisse were present as well. Everyone wanted to see how the first prototype performed.
Daedo: Well, here goes.
Myrmidon: Everything is online, running diagnostics.
Daedo: Display the power consumption and generation for Cisse. I’ll start walking.
Myrmidon: Done. She has a live feed to her HUD. There’s no weapon, so the figures will be light.
Daedo: But she can see how these old jumpjets and reactor perform.
Daedo and Myrmidon started to put the new exo through its paces. It was exceedingly strong and fast compared to the original light. Daedo didn’t even know if they could call it light anymore. And this was with the old reactor. If they got another with double the power output, he could push the hydraulics further.
The original light exo had a strength factor of 1.5, armour value of twenty, a mobility factor of 1.25, and a jumpjet runtime of thirty seconds per ten minutes.
The new Daedo light version one had a strength factor of three – higher than a standard medium and double the original. The new armour value was unknown; it would have to go through regulation AR testing. Its mobility factor was now 1.6, moving faster than a standard mesh. Due to no changes in the jumpjets or reactor, its runtime was still the same.
Overall, Daedo was impressed with the improvement. A list of tweaks and fixes the length of his arm was made. Although it was much improved, there were minor errors and mistakes which inhibited its fluidity of movement or more drastically could cause it to break down after running for ten minutes. The hydraulic fluid clearly needed replacing. The industrial machinery fluid was too thick for the tiny fibre vessels.
After running up and down, dodging and lifting a few hundred kilos, Daedo arrived back before the group to a round of applause.
“I want a try!” Mace said excitedly, and everyone clamoured for a turn.
Daedo jumped out, and one after another, all the cadets took the new exo for a spin. After an hour, he was dead tired, and the exo was beginning to break down mainly due to the unsuitable fluid.