Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142
House Thoth, Squad Leader, Squad Zero
M1 Rank: 1/1275, Tier 3 M-Rank: Null
Term: 1, Round: 4
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Axel-Zero flew by, tracking her railgun on the opposite lane and waiting for an enemy to enter her line of sight (LOS). She laid a laser tripwire on the blind side of the corner and then pinged her squad.
Daedo: Good, Axel-Zero. Gaumont, Barran – again. You still need to improve your weave. Not too close, not too far.
Barran and Gaumont were drilling weave rushing, a tactic where they would constantly be moving laterally while closing distance, sporadically covering themselves and each other with their shields. The intent was to reduce enemy accuracy and opportunity. Thoth Squad Zero worked hard on damage mitigation through movement, use of cover, use of smoke, and other traps.
The heavies now drilled with shields, a heavy metal object that would stop most types of weapons. It could also be utilised on a charge. However, the large swords or cesti effected a higher damage output. Gaumont now used the single-hand ion shotgun with a shield, while Barran was able to wield a minigun in one hand. They both could switch out to cesti for a melee option.
Daedo: Picard, your position is known to the opponent. Move, move!
Picard would find a new long-range vantage and so would Vannier since they worked as a team within the squad. Daedo was pushing their repositioning speed; it was affected by the map and their current location, but that did not change the fact that their mobility and scouting ability were the main contributing factors.
The pair would now have multiple vantages planned and should not have to find one before moving – it should already be scoped and decided. Then it came down to their speed and agility. While making the transition, they were to keep cover as a priority over speed.
Daedo and Mace were supervising the drills. They would switch between Vannier and Picard who would supervise their movements.
All squad members had tactical movements that were drilled. Movements that reduced the opportunity of attack were practised until they were completed without conscious thought.
The squad itself was broken up into three smaller teams: Barran and Gaumont, in the heavy variant for close-range and vanguard role; the highly versatile and tactical trio of Mace, Axel-Zero, and Daedo; and the long-range cover and sniper team of Picard and Vannier.
Each team performed functions together, but there was coordination with the other teams within the squad as well. The vanguard would occupy the enemy focus, the snipers would provide cover fire, while the medium-range freeform fighters would deliver the killing blow.
If the vanguard went down, the freeform fighting style of the medium-range combatants could occupy the enemy’s focus, but with movement instead of brute strength, and the damage could come from the long-range snipers.
The increased power and efficiency of the railguns improved their damage output and functionality. Now five out of seven of the squad were using railguns. Vannier and Picard used them as a long-range heavy impact weapon, while they became a single-shot, high-damage weapon for the medium as well – fire once and move. The damage from the medium-range railgun was superior to any other single-shot weapon by a factor of two.
They could not rely on superior equipment to win battles; many M3 squads would have off-the-shelf or cadet-engineered equipment that easily matched theirs.
Squad Zero made incremental improvement each day. Myrmidon was able to monitor and analyse during the drills and inform Daedo, who offered comments during training and review in a tactics debriefing after.
Vannier had remarked on that after the latest debriefing. “It’s like you’re a tactician and coach. I can’t comprehend how you’re able to monitor all of us and fight yourself. Was it the experience you gained from CyberMech? “ She asked the question with as much curiosity as admiration.
“Sort of,” Daedo said coyly.
“Hmm?” She pressed for a better response.
Daedo sighed. “Okay, it’s my AI. He monitors everything through my suit’s sensors and reports findings to me.”
“Oh,” Vannier said, somewhat lost for words. “Oh,” she said again, becoming thoughtful. “To say it’s not you but your AI is not giving yourself credit. You’ve helped your AI grow well beyond ours. It’s just another thing you’re great at.”
Barran interrupted with his typical hand on Daedo’s shoulder which was both friendly and condescending at the same time. “You know, it’s beginning to irk me how good you are at everything. If I wasn’t brilliant at anything I put my mind to, I would be jealous.” He spoke as if he believed every word.
Gaumont just laughed at him, but Barran was oblivious.
Vannier was lost in thought. If Daedo read her correctly, she was contemplating how to ask him to help everyone in the squad with their AI education and growth. Vannier was a genuinely nice person. He extrapolated her line of thinking: She didn’t want to ask for help because she thought he was already relied upon too much, and the rest of the squad should learn to stand on their own two feet.
“Vannier,” Daedo said before she could formulate a polite question. “We should spend some time each week working on AI nurturing. Myrmidon is probably capable of talking directly to your AIs.”
“Myrmidon?” Mace asked inquisitively. She knew that was one of his Spacebuild shop personas.
“Yes, that’s his name,” Daedo said.
“Mine’s called Jenkins,” Barran offered. He saw Mace’s surprised expression and asked, “What, you didn’t name yours?”
Mace shrugged. “I just have trouble thinking of mine as a person. Daedo called it ’him’ and gave it a name. I just call mine ‘AI.’”
“Pfft,” Barran scoffed, “even I know an AI is a companion. You name your pets don’t you?”
Mace nodded.
“Maybe there’s a different feeling you get from Daedo’s foundation compared to a DaVinci or Svarski,” Vannier opined. “I gave mine a name, but I still think of it as an ‘it.’ Not a ‘her.’”
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“What did you call her?” Barran asked.
“Genie,” Vannier said.
“Like a genie in a bottle?”
“Sort of, yes.” She blushed slightly. Neither Barran nor Daedo knew why.
“Oh well,” Barran said, “I’ve got to get moving. I want to get in a run before it gets too late.”
Barran needed to be outdoors. Even with his security duties, he made sure to get some topside time each day. If he spent the whole week indoors, he would go crazy.
“Daedo,” Mace said quietly as they walked back to their rooms, “can you spend some time on my AI tonight? I really would appreciate your assessment and input.”
“What’s your bandwidth rated at now?” Daedo asked.
“Supposedly very good. I registered 208 in the last assessment. I wish they had a ranking for bandwidth.”
“Hmm,” Daedo said. His last rating was 502 Tbs, but Chief Cleo always did his tests personally and was usually distressed at how high they were. He needed more data to assess her in relation to other cadets. “Vannier,” he called out, “what’s your bandwidth?”
Vannier: 185 last test.
Vannier texted him her answer rather than yell it out for everyone to hear. Although bandwidth wasn’t the main aspect that indicated good AI nurturing, it was the only metric available without devising or completing the assessments and exercises put out by the AI nurturing subject.
Daedo himself had completed few of their assessments and exercises. So he had little insight into what the other cadets had done.
After some contemplation, Daedo told Mace, “I’ll devise some exercises for you and your AI to complete. To be honest, I haven’t paid much attention to the subject matter.” If he was perfectly honest, he would have said he had paid no attention to the subject matter.
Mace looked at him sceptically. “Your Myrmidon TowerDefender shop has been around for years,” she accused. “I know, I bought some of your blueprints when I was eleven.”
Daedo shrugged. All that meant was that he’d liked the name for a long time. In fact, the shop did exist before Myrmidon was birthed. It was Daedo’s first handle. Chief Cleo had discovered that he’d birthed his AI before entering the academy, but he still preferred for only the Chief and Master Nader to have this information. If it wasn’t for Master Nader’s intervention, he would have probably been in a lot of trouble. Although a scary taskmaster, she was proving to be Squad Zero’s – and his – saviour on more than one occasion. The only real issue with her was that she’d probably murdered Master Ustinov. That was all. No big deal.
Daedo sighed. He turned his mind away from that line of thought.
Mace misinterpreted his sigh. “You don’t have to help me if you don’t want to,” she said meekly.
He shook his head. “No. It’s fine. I began thinking of our master and that incident again.”
“Oh,” Mace said with a nod. It was like a secret she shared with him. No one else seemed to notice, and it wasn’t something they would openly discuss. Master Nader always had them under surveillance; it was part of her job.
“Daedo,” Mace began reflectively, “I really wasn’t looking forward to coming to this military academy before the term started.”
Before she could finish the thought, they arrived at their quarters. And now that she was amongst a few other squad members, she became quiet.
Daedo texted her.
Daedo: Me either lol.
Mace: I’m really happy now, though. It was nothing like I expected.
Daedo: Would you believe I expected you all to be rich snobby kids who would give me the shits?
Mace: Well. You aren’t far from wrong. You just lucked out with a few good members in this squad like Vannier and Axel-Zero. Not to mention it’s hard to give the ranked one kid too much snobbiness. Jealousy, yes. But it’s almost impossible to look down on someone who kicks your ass.
Daedo and Mace had been chatting for what seemed like only a few minutes when Barran tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey,” Barran said. He was back from his run. Daedo realized that he must have been texting with Mace for almost an hour. What was strange for both of them was that they weren’t discussing technical issues, tactics, or any other academic topic. They were just chatting about their own thoughts and feelings. Past and present.
Daedo removed his opaque helmet. “Hmm?”
Barran grinned. “Shu wants their exos next week. They’re willing to pay an extra 5K bitcreds for early delivery.”
Daedo surmised that they most likely wanted extra time to practice in the exos before the end-of-term tournament.
“They’ll have to take the 2.3,” he said. It was their fifth version. He had been upgrading the exos weekly and had started to use decimals for each minor upgrade.
“Sidarus has been watching the streams of our practice sessions and said the current version is fine,” Barran said. “He also said, ‘Good luck.’ He knows we might be entering the M3 tournament.”
“Assuming we get past the other Thoth M3 squads.”
Barran laughed. “You must have seen vids of their practices, right?” He asked the question enthusiastically, loudly, and rhetorically, giving the distinct impression he thought they sucked balls.
Daedo cracked a tiny smile. “Well, we could certainly use that 5K. It will fund us for an extra couple of months of materials.”
“Yeah. We’re on a winner with these Shu cadets. They’re addicted to speed and will spend everything they have on it. Even I would baulk at 20K bitcreds. I think.” Barran contemplated what he would spend if the roles were reversed. “Nah, if my share was 3K, I would deff do it.”
Mace stood in a huff, her pure white hair flying as she whipped off her helmet. “Do you always have to be so loud, Barran? I was studying!” she yelled. Then she stormed off to her apartment.
Barran gaped at her closed door. Mace never yelled. In fact, she rarely spoke.
Daedo was confused. She hadn’t been studying. She was texting him. He thought about her reaction. Why was she angry?
Barran mouthed to Daedo, ‘Holy shit,’ with a look on his face that said, ‘Where did that come from?’
Vannier looked at Daedo and Barran. She stood and walked past them on a trip to the kitchen for a drink. On her way back she bent down and whispered to Daedo, “Are you clueless?” before sitting back down and resuming her studies.
Now he was definitely confused, and he had no idea what he was clueless about.
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Round four flew by. Between the training, studying, and workshop, Thoth Squad Zero kept themselves immersed in activity.
The rankings did not change much from round to round. Daedo still ruled the Gauntlet each and every round. He slowly and steadily improved on the obstacle course, breaking into the top 150 students of M1. Coupled with his domination of academic subjects, his place as rank one cadet of M1 was never challenged. Along with Mace and Vannier, they held three of the top five rankings with Karine Fortescue as the only other regular in the top five cadets. The fifth alternated between Lazard of Shu and Paget-A of Horus.
It was round five. The final round of the ten-week term.
Vannier announced to the squad as they met for their morning breakfast, “We have the schedule for the Thoth M3 preliminary bouts.”
“What about the M1 qualifiers?” Gaumont asked.
Barran laughed.
Vannier said, “Master Nader has given us immediate qualification with the other squads competing for the second tier one spot.”
All squads, from Zero to Thirty-One, competed at the end-of-term arena tournament. However, it was broken up into eleven tiers. The top tier had two squads from each house which then competed in a round-robin group comprised of five squads. The top two squads from each group went on to the semi-finals. The other thirty squads were placed into ten tiers, three in each one.
This meant every squad had at least four tournament matches, and up to three more if they progressed. Each house master was able to rank their squads however they saw fit. Which meant that most squads had several preliminary matches where they could possibly jump tiers if they performed well.
When anomalies happened, like M1 Squad Zero competing in M3, the house master could load another lower tier with an extra squad. The squads in that tier group would just have an extra round-robin match.
Vannier said, “Master Nader informed me that if we do not qualify for tier one in M3, we will not compete in a lower M3 tier.”
“That’s understandable,” Axel-Zero said.
“That would be embarrassing,” Barran added.
Everyone just looked at him.
“What?” he said. “Look, our master put us forward. She surely said we would kick ass so … if we don’t, we’ll look like losers.” He looked pointedly at Daedo. “Am I wrong?”
They all knew Daedo and Vannier had been called into the meeting of the masters.
Daedo opened his mouth to answer, then closed it and shook his head. Master Nader sort of did say they were exceptional and should be included.
Barran thumped the table in triumph.
Gaumont placed his head on the table and muttered, “I can’t take the pressure.”
Barran tried to console him. “Don’t worry, even if you die in the first salvo, we’ll still win.”
Vannier looked at Barran as if to say, ‘How is that consoling!’