House Thoth, Squad Leader, Squad Zero
M1 Rank: 1/1275
Term: 1, Round: 2
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M1 Horus Squad Zero members in current Horus ranking order:
1
Karine Fortescue
Fortescue
2
Aline Paget
Paget-A
3
Solene Raoult
Raoult
4
Lola Paget
Paget-L
5
Charlene Brasseur
Brasseur
6
Luc Girard
Girard
7
Nathis Niel
Niel
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Luc Girard was a squad member of the elite Horus Squad Zero. According to Karine Fortescue, she had handpicked him from the thousands of applicants to Fortescue Academy M1 to be in her squad.
His brother was impressed. It was the first time that Girard could remember his brother giving him praise that was not backhanded. He was initially quite happy to be in Fortescue’s squad, but expectations did not always meet reality. Instead of being an elite of the academy and enjoying his status, he had to fight and work incredibly hard to justify his position in the squad with constant threats of demotion.
Some of his squadmates were so talented they didn’t have to work anywhere near as hard as he did – Raoult for one and Paget-A for another. They just cruised through the educational material and the highly competitive activities such as the Gauntlet or the obstacle course. The only advantage he’d gained by joining Horus Squad Zero was the advanced heavy exos they received. These gave a cadet a significant advantage in the Gauntlet and the arena.
But for all Horus’s direct and unapologetic backing from Fortescue, somehow Thoth had come up with exos that creamed theirs in the Gauntlet. And judging from the anxiety running through the squad, today’s match – which had been a joke at first – was being taken extremely seriously. A poor performance would easily mean a demotion to Squad One or worse.
Squad members weren’t often demoted, but Karine Fortescue held so much power, she could do whatever she wished. That was what Girard had gathered from the little he’d seen and from what the Pagets or Fortescue openly discussed. The only cadets in Squad Zero who seemed safe were the Pagets and Raoult. Everyone else was under severe pressure to perform.
Girard was made to feel a failure for not making it into the top ten ranking in the academy. His brother had never ranked in the top twenty, and he was athletic, smart, and talented. Girard had ranked nineteen in the first round, better than his brother had ever achieved. Yet he still felt like he’d failed. His expectations of having a lot of fun at the academy had been dashed against the rocks of reality.
He hefted his flamer. He hadn’t reached the infamous Daedalus in time, and now all the action was behind him. He sprinted as fast as he could towards Paget-A’s position. From the comms, he could tell she was in a battle with a melee opponent, and as he closed the last corner, he saw the message. She had killed Barran. Paget-A was amazing, and normally he would be ecstatic to be in her squad. She had taken down the almost equally infamous Barran, who was always in the top three ranked on the obstacle course.
Paget-A nodded at him and said, “Drop your flamer and grab Brasseur’s assault. It’s better if we work in tandem, and they have no melee left.”
As Girard grabbed the weapon and ammo, Paget-A spoke with Fortescue over comms, formulating a plan. It seemed they had only Vannier and Mace to go. A sniper and a second launcher.
“Raoult is trying to catch Mace, but she’s too quick,” Paget-A said.
Girard nodded.
She led him to a building to the east, and they climbed using the ledges and windows, conserving their jumpjets for when it was completely necessary.
Paget-A shared a map with him, highlighting the area that Mace was in and where Vannier had last been seen.
“We need to get eyes on either of them. Once they’re down to one cadet, it’ll be easy,” Paget-A said. She was quite beat up. One more hit and she would be toast. To his knowledge, there was no way to repair in the arena. Some mechs had shields that would replenish, but that was about it.
Raoult continued to ping her own position, so they knew where she was. Fortescue was off to the southwest and Vannier was apparently northwest, while Mace and Raoult were directly west. They had strategic superiority, and while the other cadets were formidable, so was Horus.
Raoult: Shhheet. I lost her again.
Raoult had taken damage from Mace’s frag grenades, but before she could close in on Mace, she would use smoke or her superior speed and agility to get away.
Girard: There
Fortescue: Ping it, don’t just say it.
He already had while she was speaking. He’d seen Mace momentarily running north between two buildings. She used a grapple to pull herself halfway up a building before jumpjetting forward, out of his sight, as she fell. She was amazingly fast. He didn’t know an exo could move that fast. It wasn’t just the increased speed a mesh exo could provide, it was the use of the grapple and jumpjets in combination with the speed. She looked like she flew.
He was not surprised Raoult couldn’t catch her.
“Let’s move,” Paget-A said and stood up. But before she took a step, Girard heard a loud bang as a railgun round hit supersonic speed. Before Paget could dive out of the way, she fell to the ground. She’d just been taken out by Vannier, and he had no idea where Vannier was.
There was no need to inform his squad that Paget-A was down, or to say Vannier did it. They all knew from the system message that flashed momentarily on their HUD. It was now two versus three. Their significant advantage had been cut dramatically with one kill. Especially since Raoult, despite all her physical prowess, was unable to catch the fast-moving Thoth exos.
Girard liked Raoult. She didn’t act superior like Lola or Karine, despite her natural abilities. In her current situation, he felt for her. She was ineffective; her loadout, which was supreme against normal squads, was useless against Thoth Zero. How frustrating it must be to be kited by a launcher. She couldn’t even deflect rounds with her large swordlance.
He saw Mace again, but she was gone before he could fire. She was too quick running laterally across his vision. He would need to aim up a street and wait for her to pass in that area. He had just spied her within his field of vision, and she was gone before he could aim. He pinged her location first this time with an indicator showing south.
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Girard: Mace heading south.
Raoult: Thanks. Head here.
Raoult pinged a location on the map. She wanted him to get closer to where Mace was roaming. To get into the thick of it. He slid down the back of the building without breaking cover. He didn’t want a repeat of Paget-A, although he could take a few hits from a railgun since he only had minor damage from Daedo’s grenades.
Girard never imagined that hit-and-run tactics with launchers and the fast exos would be so effective. He was impressed. There would surely be squads copying this tactic in the future. All they needed to do was modify their exos with super speed and have exceptional spatial awareness akin to the rank one and rank three cadets in M1. Easy peasy.
He chuckled. There were always leaders and followers in strategy. And the followers wondered why copying strategies didn’t make them number one. Girard was smart enough to know it was about strategy and skill. When either was excluded, there was no chance of becoming number one.
As he ran towards Raoult’s pinged location, another loud boom sounded from a railgun. Although the rounds were AR, the AR adjudicator simulated the sound in the arena. At almost the same instance as the boom, he was hit on the shoulder by a railgun round. The damage was as expected, and his right arm lost most of its effectiveness. Girard estimated he could only take two or three more of those hits, depending on their location.
He pinged his speculation of Vannier’s location, basing it on his hit location and a little from the sound. But mostly from the terrain and line-of-sight trajectory that would have allowed a long-range hit on him.
Girard: Sustained a hit from Vannier. She is in this sight line.
Fortescue: Good work. You focus on Mace, I’ll take care of Vannier.
Fortescue had ended the light exos of Thoth with one hit. The damage from her PPC was OP (overpowered). The PPC had weaknesses, but not ones Thoth had exploited yet. One of the main weaknesses was the number of shots Fortescue’s exo could power. She could not use jumpjets if she wanted her full quantity of ion bolts. It took her an entire minute to generate the power for one bolt, and she could only store enough energy for three. And that was with her enhanced heavy, which had the best storage and reactor available in the Fortescue Group.
Girard saw Mace again. She was skipping backwards and firing. He ducked behind cover. Then he saw Raoult chasing her up the street and realised that Mace was not firing at him but Raoult as she tried to dodge grenades.
He began to fire on Mace. It was difficult because she was jumping up and down while moving backwards. She must have been firing her jumpjets for a second or less. She also did not move in a straight line or with regularity.
Girard managed to get a few rounds on target but missed with eighty per cent of his bursts. He was not looking forward to the interrogation when they assessed his accuracy during this match.
One moment Mace was retreating, the next she dropped a smoke grenade at her own feet. He concluded that she’d decided to escape since it was two versus one, and she didn’t want Raoult to catch her.
Raoult sprinted into the smoke heading north. She was using her jumpjets to give herself extra speed. She couldn’t use them for long, but if she could close the last distance to Mace, it would be over.
To Girard’s surprise, Mace exited the smoke heading towards him. She had fooled Raoult, who was going in the wrong direction. He had to make a split-second decision to either alert the team or fire on Mace. The safe bet would be to signal and run, escaping AR death. His rifle was good when used in a combination, but by itself its damage was average. However, Mace was in a light exo, and he was in a heavy.
He moved into the street while firing at Mace. If he was able to turn her back around, Raoult would be ecstatic if she caught Mace in a pincer. He concentrated on bursts at her midsection, and he was landing closer to fifty per cent despite her dodging. He took a moment to ping the map for the others.
Two grenades had splashed him with flack. He did not expect to last much longer, but he only had to last longer than Mace. There was little point trying to dodge; his exo was too slow. Girard took the chance of a headshot in an attempt to win. It was difficult to hit Mace’s midsection with all her twisting, jumping, dodging, sliding, and strafing. Her head was almost impossible.
Then she shot him with her grapple.
“What the –” Girard yelled in surprise. “She fecking shot me with her grapple,” he said under his breath to no one but himself. She pulled herself to him just as an ion bolt landed in the spot she’d just vacated.
The butt of her launcher hit him in the face. It was not a programmed melee weapon, but the surprise physical impact stunned him.
Before he could get another burst off, he was hit by a railgun round, and the last thing he saw before his HUD went black was Raoult running towards him straight into a frag grenade blast.
Two system messages scrolled up his HUD as he lay on the ground.
Horus Squad Zero had gone from four versus two to one versus two. A total disaster.
As Girard lay in situ, his only view until the match was over was of the system messages. While most stimuli were closed to him, he thought about the match and reran his role in it through his head. He felt his performance was good. However, he doubted he would receive the same assessment from his squad leader.
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Karine Fortescue could not believe the turn of events. They’d had four, which included three of their best, versus two Thoth. The Thoth cadets were elite, both holding top ten rankings, but that did not explain the reversal in fortune.
How did this happen? she thought. Raoult’s loadout was useless against Mace; that was a massive mistake on the squad leader’s part. Aline sustained too much damage against Barran. Thoth’s pincer ambush had been well-executed and extremely well-timed, which was surprising, based on their arena vids. She had never seen such coordination in their bouts against Shu.
Her trump card, the PPC, was designed to blunt and destroy the expected ambush. She reviewed the kills. Her cover was far to the south of Mace, and she had a few seconds to assess before trying to pick off the light launcher. Mace would have to come to her, and the last thing Fortescue would do was move.
She would force Mace to search for her while Vannier stayed hidden. If she could take out Mace, then the battle against Vannier would be based on their marksmanship skills and strategy. Her weapon was far superior to Vannier’s and suited to a one-on-one fight. Its main weakness was if she was swamped or charged by a melee.
Vannier would have to shoot her multiple times, whereas she only needed one direct hit against the other girl.
There was something odd with the system messages. The first kill was attributed to Daedo against her squad member, the second was another Thoth – Gaumont, who took down Niel. Where was Daedo’s death?
Fortescue had two kills. Gaumont and Picard. She should have three. A system message only appeared for moments when someone died in the AR arena. Although the log could be brought up the log during the fight, it had been too hectic to do so until now.
And the ambush had hit the moment she thought she’d killed Daedo. They were too busy fighting to notice there was no kill message.
How friggin’ stupid! Horus would be a laughingstock if anyone found out they thought they’d killed Daedo when they really hadn’t. The system told them whether they’d made a kill! It was an unforgivable blunder.
He must have been watching, calling the shots the entire time. Feck, she fumed, entirely frustrated with her squad’s pathetic performance.
There was no point crying over it. She hefted her PPC. There was enough charge for a single shot, and in less than a minute, she would have a second. She had no one to scream at over the comms. She was alone against three.
Fortescue was not about to lie down and admit defeat, no matter how bleak the situation. If she could win from here, it would signal she was ready to take the Fortescue Academy out of Tier 3 and into Tier 2.
It was her responsibility to get their academy out of Tier 2 … and in her wildest dreams, into Tier 1. She’d been given all the resources and power available in order to achieve this. If she asked for something, it was provided. She had basically handpicked her squad. Requisitioned equipment. She was building a team to win M level. If she couldn’t beat an upstart Thoth squad, it meant she had no chance versus KAIST or ETH Zurich. Let alone Seoul Military Academy.
Fortescue calculated Mace’s approach and then adjusted based on the cadet’s own predictions. It was tempting to move into the far northwest corner to narrow the field of vision she needed to cover but moving had its own risks. At the moment, they would be able to calculate her location to an accuracy of five buildings, given their expertise. Usually, she would expect an opponent to have a much larger area. But Thoth had proved nothing if not competency in tactical calculations.
She listened intently for a lobbed grenade, fearing one would come from nowhere and arc over her cover into her position. Her mind kept searching for the telltale sounds a launcher made, the pop as a grenade left its chute.
Fortescue noticed smoke in the streets surrounding the buildings to her north. Thoth had used a couple of smoke grenades to cover their movements. At least she knew they would be in that area. If they topped a building to search for her, she would see them.
Pop!
She heard the launcher, and from out of the smoke came a frag grenade in her direction.
How? They had guessed her location with pinpoint accuracy. She could take a few frag grenades before her advanced heavy succumbed. But it was more important for her to remain hidden than to take a couple of hits from random searching shots.
She wished their grenade munitions would run out. Daedo and Mace had used thirty frags and at least seventeen smokes between them. If they carried thirty kilos of munitions, they would probably have thirty grenades each. It was wishful thinking though; they would easily have enough for one more kill.
Fortescue remained still as the grenade landed to her right. She just took the damage. She wasn’t going to let a grenade exploding make her give up her position. It was possible they weren’t certain, and no movement after a grenade explosion would give them pause. Perhaps they would start to search other buildings in the vicinity.
She focused on the smoke ceiling. If any cadet showed a helmet above that line, she would take it out. She contemplated radar. It would give her position away – something she was determined to keep hidden. But maybe it was her only chance. If she got a radar ping and fired immediately, the PPC could take one out. In another twenty seconds, she would have a second charge.
She activated her radar, waiting for the ping. Not unexpectedly, she got two within the smoke.
She fired immediately at the easier target and heard two pops from their grenade launchers.
Two system messages appeared.
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The final moments of the feed showed over three thousand viewers. Given that there were only 7,650 cadets in the academy, it was a massive number. Perhaps the numbers were bolstered by alumni and others in Fortescue with clearance to the academy’s stream.
Chatter ensued amongst audience cliques for the entire match as they discussed strategy, skill, and equipment analysis.
One thing was apparent: House Thoth were no longer easy beats.