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: 5
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“We should take a break from this problem and focus on the upcoming arena battles,” Gaumont said.
Their first battles were in three days against Thoth M3 Squad Zero and One. The tournaments proper would begin the next week. Week ten.
Daedo was focused on trying to make his latest idea work. It was promising at first, but the theory kept failing. It became less elegant the more he tried to manipulate the algorithm to force a positive outcome.
Gaumont said, “And really, with the tournament proper starting next week, this is our last chance to complete all our subject course material and assessments.”
“Gaumont,” Daedo said patiently, “surely all your coursework is done? We’re working on this problem now because I have nothing else to do. Well, other than being beaten with bo staffs.”
Gaumont shifted nervously and asked, “Seriously? You’ve done everything?”
“Yeah,” Daedo said, then paused. “What? You haven’t?”
“Um. There are quite a few things left from reference, AI nurturing, behavioural, and my tech project.”
Daedo sighed. “Very well, I’ll call Cisse and talk about our ideas and lack of progress. See if she can give me some inspiration. You can go do your coursework.”
As Gaumont left the virtual room, Daedo pinged Cisse and invited her in. Daedo was wearing his helmet and was in a room he created with Gaumont which contained all the workings on the cosmological constant math problem (aka ZPE problem). Although this problem had been given to him by the math chief, Daedo thought it should have really sat in physics.
“Ah, this is where the magic happens,” Cisse said as she appeared in the virtual lab. The lab had four walls covered with scribble and several boxes that contained the archived work stored under different headers. Although she said this was where the magic happened, it was not her first visit. She had been in the virtual lab on a number of occasions to chat with the two cadets.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that I have a problem with the question,” Daedo said.
Cisse hummed a sound that indicated she was listening.
“Me too,” Myrmidon said. He appeared as a miniature ancient Greek warrior, one who would have followed Achilles. Excluding the fact that he was fifteen centimetres tall.
Cisse laughed. “And the great and magnificent Myrmidon appears,” she said, lathering Daedo’s AI with praise. Cisse was now contracted to the squad’s company, known simply as Daedalus, so she had received information from Myrmidon, through Daedo, on a few occasions.
“Oh yes,” he squeaked, “I love the virtual lab; there’s nothing stopping me from interacting with everyone.”
“But it’s the first time I have seen you here,” she observed.
“I can’t help that I am shy,” Mymidon said, and Daedo laughed.
“I don’t recall any code that encouraged you to lie,” Daedo teased.
“Then I’m not lying,” Myrmidon riposted.
Daedo shook his virtual head and changed the topic. “Cisse, I invited you here for some advice. Something has been bugging me.”
“Hmm?” She looked at him expectantly.
“Well,” Daedo began, “the cosmological constant problem might be based on incorrect theories. I do not believe that what was known as dark energy actually exists in its entirety in the vacuum as fluctuating fields. It doesn’t add up, no matter how I attack the problem.”
“These theories are supported by observation from more than a few sources, all of which are replicable. You can see for yourself.”
“Perhaps there are other variables that affect the observation that we are ignorant about,” Daedo said, exasperated. “It’s either the math doesn’t add up, and the observation is flawed, or the observation is correct, and I cannot find the cosmological constant. Or perhaps everything in quantum mechanics is wrong. I don’t know.”
“I would go with one of the first two. Daedo, there is a reason no one has solved this problem yet.” She paused and exclaimed, “It’s damn hard!”
After a period of contemplation and another aborted working, Daedo said quietly, “I had another idea for a reactor.”
Cisse stood, virtual legs appearing under her. “I’m listening,” she said attentively.
“Well, all the research I’ve done into quantum mechanics has me thinking about fission, fusion, and annihilation as a sequence,” Daedo said. He had spent literally hundreds of hours researching quantum physics. And this was from material Myrmidon had spent the equivalent of millions of hours searching and prioritizing.
“If you weren’t twelve, I would think you were trying to sweet talk me. Tell me your theory, Daedo,” Cisse said excitedly.
He ignored the joke. Life was easier that way.
“We take a hydrogen atom isotope – deuterium – in the first field and split the nucleus into a proton and a neutron,” he began. “Then we split the proton and neutrons into three up quarks and three down quarks in the second field. We then allow the quarks to recombine in the third field, and half should form antimatter, while the other half forms regular matter – antihydrogen and hydrogen.”
“Ah, that’s why you want to use deuterium – for the extra neutron that has the extra down quark!” Cisse exclaimed.
“Yes, well this is all in my imagination. I have no idea if half will recombine into antimatter. It just seems logical to me.” Daedo paused before continuing. “There have been some experiments, for other purposes, which led me to this conclusion though.”
Cisse beamed. “I love how you will gain energy from the fission, the fusion, and the annihilation. It’s like three reactors in one.” She thought for a moment. “Where does this energy come from?”
“From the zero point.” Daedo laughed at his own answer. He meant the energy came from the hidden source of the vacuum, the unexplained source known as dark energy. Which, in other words, meant he did not know.
Cisse laughed with him. It was a physics joke they could both appreciate that not many others would. In reality, they would need to supply energy to begin the initial fission, and the mechanics behind fusion was well understood. The unknown was where the energy of matter and antimatter annihilating each other came from.
“You know, Daedo,” Cisse said after their laughter died down, “I could build the fission and fusion reactors and an accelerator to attempt to prove this idea.”
“I’m sure you are one of the few people who could,” Daedo replied, smiling at her.
Cisse was very happy with how their relationship had blossomed after Daedo began attending the military academy. It was something she’d least expected. The academy, of all things, being the catalyst was what amazed her the most. Daedo was so into his exos that he had finally needed her. It was not what she had imagined, but it would do.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The whole experience had changed her world so much that she began to contemplate finally doing something about her legs. There were many options available to her from regrowth to artificial. She had always had the finances to take the plunge but had chosen not to for various reasons. Most of them revolved around survivor’s guilt.
“Daedo,” Cisse said quietly, “some materials might be required for these accelerators, and we may need to dig out the basement. Can I have a budget?”
“I think you can have 5k without an issue,” Daedo said. “Any more and we’ll have to wait for news on some of our ventures.”
Cisse was gobsmacked. “You can drop 5k that easily?”
“We made that much last week,” Myrmidon said.
“In one week?” Cisse asked, still astonished.
Daedo said, “Shu Squad Zero from M3 wanted to rush their order. That was the payment for early delivery.”
Cisse could have fainted if she wasn’t sitting down already. It amazed her how a twelve-year-old could make so many bitcreds in such a short amount of time. In her mind, he was destined to build an amazing company out of Daedalus. The Fortescue Group was clueless about what was coming. And it existed in their own academy. That irony alone made her very happy.
“Will 5K do?” Daedo asked.
“Yes. Easily. We only need materials. We have the equipment to build the parts we need from the materials. And thanks to your father, we have plenty of robot labour to dig out the basement.”
“Let’s do it then,” he said happily.
“If it works, we’ll have to think up a cool name for it. Something like this.” She sent the text into the virtual air. “R3actor.”
“Ugh, no. You are denied naming rights,” Daedo said loudly. “If we can’t think of a cool enough name, we’ll just call it the Daedalus Reactor.”
“I actually like that,” Cisse said sweetly.
“Let’s keep this under wraps until you can get some data at least – or a working prototype.”
She nodded. “Agreed.”
With that, Daedo gave up on the math problem revolving around the cosmological constant. In his mind, the physics theories that relied upon this constant were flawed. Mankind understood much about the universe, but only about five per cent of what there was to know.
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Daedo faced off against Picard, Mace, and Axel-Zero. For the first few weeks, their melee training group consisted of just the trio. In fact, it had been a duo before Daedo joined Mace and Picard. Axel-Zero, who was part of the versatile medium-range combat team, recently named ‘liberos,’ had joined them in the last couple of weeks.
Finally, someone who Daedo could beat with a kendo shinai or bo staff. Mace and Picard always pwnd him due to the immense gap in their experience and training.
“Tomorrow we have the two Thoth M3 squads,” Picard said as she led the kata. “Are we worried?” She directed the question at Daedo as she turned to face him.
“No,” he said, “the fun won’t begin until we meet with the M3 squads in tier one. They’ll make M1 Horus Zero look like chumps in comparison.”
“Surely Horus Zero would give a few of them a run for their creds,” Axel-Zero added. “They’re outfitted with inter-academy gear now and have the full power of Fortescue behind them.”
M1 Horus Squad Zero had tried to close the gap with Daedo’s squad by obtaining the best possible gear they could – the equipment that the Fortescue Military Academy took to the inter-academy tournament. It was an horrendous abuse of privilege that had most of the cadets from all houses upset. Daedo was one of the few who did not care, simply repeating his mantra, ‘There is no cheating in war.’
He had taken Chief Albert’s maxim to heart. Not because it was from a chief, and not because he respected the chief. In contrast, he didn’t do anything Chief Albert wanted. It was because when he heard it, it had made perfect sense.
“Well, despite that gear, when they still couldn’t beat our Gauntlet times, they didn’t request a rematch,” Mace said.
“They were scared of losing practice slots,” Axel-Zero said.
Daedo harrumphed. That wasn’t it.
“They were scared of losing face,” Picard chimed in, and in Daedo’s opinion, she was correct. He imagined that Horus could practice offsite just as easily as his squad could. In the end, the rush for slots and the bets were moot. The squad gained more from the motivation to win the bet than the outcome of winning.
Mace took on both Daedo and Axel-Zero for sparring. She was good enough to hold them off, and by fighting them both, it improved her reflexes, defence, and spatial awareness.
“If you liberos love to spar so much, why don’t you take me on, Daedo,” Picard asked sweetly. She was the one left out.
“No thanks. You never pull your hits; I always come out bruised,” he said while trying to pierce Mace’s defence.
“And you, Axel-Zero?” Picard pleaded in her sweetest tone.
Mace attacked Picard and called out, “Follow me, liberos.” The trio all attacked Picard. This scenario was not uncommon. It was the best training Picard could get. The ironic part was that she was one of only two members of the squad unlikely to get into close combat. It really should have been Barran getting barraged by the three liberos.
Picard had been training in melee combat since she could walk. She’d been trained by soldiers, not by prissy tutors or expensive simulators. Mace usually could only land a blow on her when she was overwhelmed by the trio. Otherwise, the gap in skill between Daedo and Mace was equalled by the gap between Mace and Picard.
Picard also had a natural height advantage, being almost a head taller than Daedo, with Mace and Axel-Zero only one or two centimetres taller than him.
The session ended with all combatants on the floor, out of breath and slightly bruised. A typical ending.
Picard gripped Daedo’s arm. “I swear your muscle tone has improved before my eyes, youngling.”
All the girls laughed at him. So much for being squad leader and M1 rank one. There was no respect from his squaddies. But Picard was joking about a truth. Over the past nine weeks, Daedo had worked his butt off physically. It was too easy to say he was in the best shape of his life, as he had never been in shape before. This was what shape felt like, he thought.
“I actually can’t remember being flabby,” Daedo said happily.
“It was only yesterday, youngling, that you were Flabbymcflappy face,” Picard roared.
All the girls laughed again. It was worth the humiliation to see Picard coming out of her shell and gelling with the squad. It wasn’t that she had accepted them as equals; she had accepted herself as an equal to them. Which was an entirely different and bigger breakthrough. It did not hurt that she was routinely in the top ten cadets in M1. That, most of all, must have boosted her self-image.
“I liked you better when you didn’t have a sense of humour,” Daedo retorted after the laughter died down. His barb was received with boos at his lack of decorum. “What? It’s okay to make fun of me, but I can’t return fire?”
The trio nodded solemnly in affirmation. And after Daedo’s facial expression took on a horrified aspect, the laughter began again.
“Got me,” he said under his breath.
Myrmidon: Oh, they’re good.
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The outdoor arena was packed with cadets from Thoth M1 to M3. There were cadets from other houses, but those were dwarfed by the numbers from House Thoth. Daedo’s squad’s first battle in the topside arena was against M3 Thoth Squad One, and immediately after, they were to meet their counterpart from M3 – Squad Zero.
It was an event every cadet from Thoth wanted to see. Could the upstarts who had been in the academy only nine weeks beat the comparative veterans from M3? The hype was in the positive. M1 rankings made everyone think it was possible, and they wanted to see it.
Daedo did not know how these battles got assigned to the outdoor arena which was usually for tier one and inter-academy matches only. Was it possibly Master Nader’s doing, or was it due to sheer interest and popularity?
His squad of seven lined up against the eight from M3 Squad One. Barran and Gaumont were in heavies and were the vanguard. Mace, Axel-Zero, and Daedo were in mediums and were liberos.
‘Libero’ described their varied tactics perfectly. The trio that carried a variety of traps, a launcher with grenades, a grappler, and either a melee weapon or a short-barrelled railgun were capable of running a gamut of styles from absolute mayhem to covert action.
And lastly the snipers – Vannier and Picard. The enemy was either suppressed through action or inaction due to their deadly aim from long range. The pair had refined their tag-team tactics where one would stick while the other moved. The enemy rarely knew where the threat was located, which made predicting their line of fire with accuracy nearly impossible.
Their new railguns were well above standard issue in terms of range, damage, and accuracy. It was possible to purchase top-of-the-range military-grade railguns which were better, but the squad would continue to improve their own. If they resorted to off-the-shelf, they would be limited to the performance of the available equipment. It was always inferior to what the top-tier academies had access to, and it was also exorbitantly priced.
Their opponents were all in heavy exos, which were covered with a plethora of gadgets. It looked like all their R & D went into developing gadgets to put on their heavy exos. Laser-guided rocket launchers sitting on shoulders. A dish that looked like some form of an ultrasonic sensor. A dynamically charged net consisting of blue arcs that were most likely designed to shock and incapacitate anyone who came into contact with it – anyone other than the insulated owner.
Those were the most obvious and largest gadgets. Most of them had unknown functions and were small in size.
In a few minutes, the battle would begin. As with all arena matches, it was about survival. When one squad was eliminated, the squad left standing was declared the winner. The terrain was unknown until they entered the arena proper when the battle started. Its size was the only known factor. To fit into the exo arena, it had to be six hundred by two hundred metres; a rather small space, given some of the weapon ranges available.
The two squads were led to either end of the arena. Before they entered, they could hear the announcer. Once they entered, they could not, which was a godsend as far as all the combatants were concerned.
Most popular matches had announcers, whether they were official or unofficial. It was easy for a cadet to relay a stream and overlay their own commentary if they were so inclined. And several of the three and a half thousand Thoth cadets were sure to be.
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Durand. Squad Twelve, M2. Rank 672.
And here we have it Thothites. The match we’ve all been waiting for! The anticipation is finally over, and the questions we all have can finally be answered.
Are they revolutionary? Or are they overrated upstarts?