House: Thoth, Rank: 1/255, Squad Zero, Squad Leader
M1 Rank: ?/1,275
Term 1, Round 1
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Vannier and Axel-Zero were bombarded with messages shortly after the rankings updated, a few of which they answered. The messages came from previously close friends who had suddenly become no longer friendly but now just as suddenly were friendly again. Mostly they ignored the incoming torrent of questions and messages.
Daedo and Picard, who were outsiders, were untouched by the direct contact barrage. Mace did not go out of her way to socialise before attending the academy, and like Picard, received few messages.
“Are you being bombarded with messages all of a sudden too?” Axel-Zero asked Barran.
“I have mine on auto-reply. Get fekked,” he said. “I stopped keeping track after the first couple.” He was still sore from dropping drastically in his squad ranking, although his overall did not change by much. A mere four places out of seventeen.
The livestream of their practice session with Shu was being watched by thousands of viewers, where it would normally be between ten to twenty. The squad spoke over comms during the practice.
Barran: Oh boy, we sure are popular now. Do you see the viewer count?
Daedo: This is not a good thing. Is there any way we can opt out of streaming?
Axel-Zero: I’m afraid it is part of the learning process of the academy. Everything is streamed and recorded for current and future cadets to learn from.
Vannier: It’s limited to Fortescue Academy though. They don’t want information on tactics and capability leaking outside into the inter-academy league.
Daedo: So we can’t even make credits off a stream?
Barran: Who makes creds off a stream?
Axel-Zero: He does. How do you think he afforded the workshop?
Daedo: We need to focus on the assigned drills. We need the telemetry data on the new exo to further improve it.
Barran: So I’m free to stuff around, since I don’t have a new exo?
Daedo: All data is used, but we have enough information on you using the minigun now. I would be interested to see how it changes if you change your loadout. Can you swap to melee weapons or a one-handed gun and launcher?
Barran: Yeah, I love the minigun. It’s so good. But I can try different loadouts in matches that don’t matter. Any requests?
Daedo: A melee-range loadout and a short-range loadout. The minigun is already close to short-range, but I would like to see how you handle a lower rate of fire, higher-damage cannon, or shotgun.
Barran: Cestus and shotty? I can do that.
Daedo: Perfect. Once you have increased mobility and strength, that combination will increase in effectiveness markedly.
Barran: You mean kick more ass. Speak properly, Daedo.
Axel-Zero: Same could be said for you, Barran.
Although they did not take winning or losing the match seriously, Squad Zero beat Shu over and over with their new exos. The difference in mobility had caused a gap in performance where they were almost equal while performing drills during the previous week. It was mostly Picard and Vannier taking the enemy down from range whilst never being pinned down themselves. The enemy simply could not catch them.
Daedo: During the next practice, I want everyone in a light exo to get into melee range combat and then escape. Everyone needs to use a cestus and a grappler in your off-hand. You are to punch the enemy once, and then escape to an out-of-range or out-of-line-of-sight position. Then repeat.
Picard: Oh boy, this will confuse and annoy Thoth Squad One.
Barran: Like we care.
Daedo was testing the agility of the exo, forcing his squadmates to get into situations where they would try to dodge or avoid fire. The telemetry data would inform him where weaknesses in the design resided. Whether it was the knees, the torso or waist, or flexibility in any parts. It would also push his squadmates to learn to use the grappler inventively.
Thoth Squad Zero finished their practice with Shu Squad Zero and then Thoth Squad One, reaping telemetry data and joy in their new exos. They literally ran rings around the standard issue. Xavier from Squad One congratulated them when they exited the Thoth arena.
“This exo,” he said, “is really impressive. Hats off to you guys.” He began to walk away but then turned back. “I didn’t see you in the mech bay during the weekend. Where did you put this all together?”
“Confidential information, sorry,” Barran said, deadpan, and waved him to move along.
Xavier looked disappointed at first before changing his countenance and smiling. “I love mysteries. I guess I’ll just have to find out. Oh, by the way, what do you guys think of The Spiral?”
Daedo: The Spiral?
Axel-Zero: You do live under a rock don’t you? It’s a massive PPP with the four governments and the top corporations. Plans were announced today.
Daedo: What’s a PPP?
Axel-Zero: It’s a public-private partnership. It’s when the government works with companies on big infrastructure projects.
Daedo: Ah. I don’t know much about business.
Vannier: From the guy who made over 20K bitcreds by the age of twelve.
As Vannier laughed over the comms, Barran answered Xavier. “Exciting isn’t it? I can’t wait until it’s completed so I can visit and fly my awesome ship out of here.”
Xavier looked dumbfounded. “You have a ship?”
Barran grinned. “No, but I will by the time it’s done in five years! That’s a long time to save for one dontcha think?”
Daedo looked up the details of The Spiral.
Daedo: Myrmidon, look at this.
The Spiral was not just a super space station. It possessed an elevator from Earth. Daedo was intrigued because speculation was that an elevator would extend from the equator, but the plans showed it was at the North Pole. Not the Magnetic North Pole, the Geographic North Pole. He figured there must be a very good reason for that – it had to reach higher in the atmosphere, which would come at a greater cost and a more difficult engineering proposition.
The Spiral itself was named because of its shape. Unlike many space stations, which formed rings, this one was a centric spiral. The large centre was split between the four governments of the Security Council – the EU, Chinese Asia, North America, and Russia. These four governments ruled the world and would rule space as well, it seemed. The Spiral’s arms themselves were backed by blocks of companies with three mega-companies leading the way with a Spiral arm each. It was no surprise that DaVinci, Svarski, and Huawei each had a large stake in the space station.
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And its purpose?
The stated purpose was progress and security. No mention of exploration of space. The companies would explore space for the sole purpose of finding much-needed minerals with the possibility of finding new exotic materials. Stage two of the massive undertaking would see the establishment of similar bases on Mars and the moon.
Up until now, space mining was expensive, and the costs outweighed the benefits. But according to the marketing of The Spiral, the elevator and the advancement of robots would change all this. Space would provide all the materials needed to expand with excess coming back to Earth. It had probably taken years to get all the major participants to agree on the cost and ownership of The Spiral.
The Spiral itself was funded by hundreds of shareholders – governments amongst them – and it would be a company itself, with costs and profits flowing to and from its shareholders based on their equity.
Even this must have been extremely political, with each of the four main governments owning an equal share of ten per cent exactly. Minor governments had purchased shares as well as every wealthy company Daedo had ever heard of and then some.
The big three had an eight per cent share each, and even Fortescue had a per cent. The list of companies with shareholdings below one per cent was vast. But even a small stake in this venture came at a large cost, which was not guaranteed to be returned. The entire project was estimated to be over twenty billion bitcreds when all the stages were included. Daedo could not even imagine this amount of money, and he wondered why it was so costly. Surely if they used robots and mined for the minerals to build stages two and three, they should not be so costly. Something didn’t add up.
It must be the way adults did accounting. He could purchase a cold fusion reactor for one thousand bitcreds, but if Cisse built one, the cost of the materials was under a hundred bitcreds. Yes, they needed a workshop with expensive machinery, foundries, injection moulding, and fabricators to achieve this. Perhaps the adults just valued the end result at its retail value and not its cost to build.
Daedo shook his head. He didn’t have time to concern himself with such things. Life was complicated and busy enough already.
“It is massive,” Mace said to Daedo, breaking his reverie. She pulled up a render, taking up most of their common area.
They had walked back after their second match, leaving the others to chat with Xavier. This was time that Daedo had allocated to catch up on his studies or to assist his squadmates with their work.
“It could be a city,” Daedo said, looking at the dimensions.
“I think that’s the point,” Mace said. “Manufacturing, personnel, robots, storage, mech bays, and spaceship docks, even then.”
“There’s something they aren’t telling us,” Daedo said. “I’m sure of it. The cost, the size, and the stated purpose … they don’t add up to me.”
“If they don’t add up to you, then I don’t doubt they’re hiding something,” Mace said. “But what?”
“My guess would be something to do with aliens, either friendly or defence against not-so-friendly,” Daedo said.
“Or a way for the rich and powerful to leave Earth quickly,” Mace said ominously.
That sent a shiver up Daedo’s spine. Surely not. Surely The Spiral’s intended purpose was not for the escape of the elite of humankind from Earth.
“I need to get my mind off this Spiral. It’s too distracting,” Daedo said. It didn’t matter what purpose The Spiral had. It did not affect him directly and worrying about it would achieve nothing.
Mace turned off the projection. “What are you up to before bed?” she asked.
“I think I’ll work on one of those math problems. That will take my mind away from The Spiral.”
Mace laughed. “I find them more depressing than contemplating conspiracy theories about Earth’s impending doom. I’ll just get stuck into the launcher design.” After a few minutes, she added, “I have an idea I wanted to run past you.”
Daedo did not break from reading the four remaining math problems. He merely nodded with his helmet on, so she knew he was listening.
“What if, instead of launching grenades, we launched small drones?” she said. “If they could fly themselves, they could be launched from our backs or even our shoulders. This would leave our arms free for two grapplers.”
Daedo stopped what he was doing and opened his helmet. “That’s brilliant. I can see already that four hooks aren’t enough, and we’re only scratching the surface with the grapplers. Imagine using one and then another in tandem?”
“Wow, I didn’t think of that, but I saw how effectively you were using the grappler in the Gauntlet,” Mace said. “It was one of the reasons you beat my score.”
“What sort of drones would we use? What ordnance, what function, how are they powered, how do they fly, how much do they weigh and how are they controlled?”
Mace laid her head on the table and held her arms out straight. “I surrender!”
Daedo laughed. “Okay, too much, I know. Why don’t we start with a basic design of one function and see where that leads?”
She smiled. “Alright. But this will take time. We won’t have anything ready for next week. Nothing tried and tested, at least.”
“That’s okay, we can use our current launcher or just use handheld grenades and place mines manually for now. Do you know what weapon you’ll use next week?”
“If I can have two grapplers and carry a bunch of grenades and mines, I would just use a swordlance,” Mace said.
“That could work,” Daedo said. “You would be like a combat engineer who distracts and confuses the enemy. It would be the others’ role to take them down. Unless of course, you got the drop on them and then you could use your swordlance. I like it.”
Mace nodded. “I’ll get to work on the first prototype drone.”
“Make it manually controlled from our cybernetics for now. I can code something later,” Daedo said. Either he could code something, or he and Myrmidon could together. But what he was actually planning was for Myrmidon to control the drones using all his predictive and spatial awareness capability.
“My spatial awareness is not off the charts like yours,” she said, “but I will do it. There is so much to work out already. What about power systems? Can your aunty help?”
“I’m sure she will. Send her a message. She’ll immediately ask questions about size, weight, required output, and subsystems,” Daedo warned Mace.
“I never thought I would enjoy the academy this much,” Mace said quietly. It was one of the few times she opened up, and she usually only talked to Daedo. The other cadets were relegated to silence and one-word or one-sentence answers from her.
He studied her for a moment. Mace had pure white, long hair. When she allowed it to flow, it went well past her shoulders. Her eyes were piercing blue, and she was short, only barely taller than him. Of all his squad members, she was by far the most capable across every subject, whether it was physical, math, or piloting. She only ranked second to him or Barran most of the time.
Finally, he said, “Neither did I,” before a tiny smile broke on his face.
She reached out to touch his hand.
“Okay you two lovebirds,” Barran said loudly as he barged into the common area. Mace pulled her hand back reflexively.
Barran looked at Mace’s hand and then at Daedo blushing and laughed. “I was kidding, kiddo,” he said, thumping Daedo on the back. “Although it’s good to see I’ll have competition for the ladies. It’s usually a chore when they all chase me and it makes my friends jealous.”
“Oh please,” Vannier interrupted. “You wouldn’t even know what to do with a lady.” She paused and added seriously, “Daedo, there’s someone here who wants to speak to us, and it really has to be you who has the final say.”
Daedo looked at the door and saw a member from Shu standing at the entrance to their quarters. He was tall, and his uniform possessed more blue patches than an M1 or regular Shu. “Permission to enter?” the cadet asked formally.
“Granted,” Vannier replied.
“Daedo, is it?” the cadet asked and received a nod. “I’m Cadet Squad Leader of Shu Squad Zero in M3, and my name is Siderus.”
“Daedo,” Daedo said, standing. The Shu M3 cadet was so formal, it shaped the tone of their conversation.
“I know you’re busy – Vannier said as much,” Siderus said. “But I wanted to ask you something. We had been working with a Thoth squad from M3 purchasing upgrades for our exos, but after what I witnessed today, I am strongly considering giving you the contract. That is, of course, if you’re interested?”
Daedo did not want to give their hard work and innovation away. But on the other hand, they needed creds. Vannier’s family connections were already filing patents for a few of their innovations, but some would most likely not be approved. And it would be ages before those patents turned into creds.
“Sure, but the devil is in the details,” he said “We just expanded our manufacturing capability so we can produce more exos in a short period, and we’ll want to maintain control and ownership over our innovations. There will be many restrictions on use, narrowing it down to your arena combat and Gauntlet exercises.”
Siderus nodded. “I get it, you want to protect your IP. Knowing you’re open to discussions, I just wanted a meeting face-to-face to make our intentions clear; so you know who I am and that I’m serious. We can discuss all the details in correspondence. We need the exo before the end-of-term tournament. So there is time, but not much.”
“Do you mean eight weeks isn’t much time?” Vannier asked, confused.
“Yes,” Siderus said.
“We did this in a weekend,” she said, indicating her exo.
“No!” Siderus said in utter disbelief. “Surely you were working on this before entering the academy?”
He received deadpan stares from Thoth Squad Zero.
“Fark!” Siderus exclaimed. “Okay, then eight weeks is tonnes of time.”
“You know, the reactors alone are a thousand bitcreds,” Barran said.
“You aren’t using standard reactors?” Siderus asked.
“Nothing is standard,” Barran bluffed. He actually didn’t know all of the details; he usually made a point not to know them.
“Increased power efficacy is the foundation of a good exo,” Daedo added. “More power means more strength, larger and higher-powered weapons, and most importantly, increased jumpjet runtime.”
“Sold,” Siderus said. Nothing was more important to the Shu squad leader as jumpjets. “I’ll offer a price when I see the specs, and we can have the contract detail worked out by then.”
“Exclusive or non-exclusive?” Barran asked.
“Ah … exclusive to M3?”
“Oh, exclusive is so much more expensive,” Barran informed the Shu squad leader. “I hope your parents are rich.”