“Alright, run me through this again, and go slow cause this shit is confusing,” Cameron said, keeping his eyes focused on the path forward as his voice rose to be heard over the din of haggling merchants and laughing mercs, “So, classes are based on the pilot and not the mech?”

Logan sighed, running his hands through his hair in frustration as he looked at Cameron incredulously, “Okay… one more time,” He said, slowing his pace in order to focus before breaking into his spiel.

“The fleet and pilot kind as a whole has a ranking system set in place in order to control the saturation of contracts, mechs, and money. There’s five ranks; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Sigma, and Omega. The ranking system applies to the three major components of the Fleet, being Companies, A.R.M.S. units, and pilots. The only distinction is with the pilot ranking as each of these ranks in turn have three sub ranks that reside within them. Those sub ranks are Legos, Sirius, and Primus.”

“And I take it that an Alpha Primus is stronger than an Alpha Sirius, right?” Cameron asked, speaking slowly as he attempted to take it all in.

Logan nodded, “Exactly, and a Beta Legos is stronger than an Alpha Primus.”

“Just how much stronger?” Cameron asked.

Logan contemplated for a moment, bringing a finger up to stroke the wisps of gray hair that were peppered throughout his goatee, “It fluctuates dependent on the overall ranking. An Alpha Legos pilot can still handedly defeat an Alpha Primus, if the former is skilled enough. But wouldn’t have a snowball's chance in hell when pitted against a Beta Sirius. Rule of thumb is this; The higher the overall rank, the larger the gap in skill between that pilot and all others underneath them.”

“And what determines a pilot's skill?” Cameron asked, following closely behind as Logan approached a moving sidewalk, its long black pavement-like floors slowly guiding them deeper into Arsius station, so far off into the distance that Cameron couldn’t even see where it ended. They boarded together as Logan leaned against the right handrail, resting his weight on his elbows, before looking over a Cameron like the answer was obvious.

“Missions, of course,” He said, “That and confirmed kills. Your unit records these metrics, and confirms there validity through logs that are kept in your synaptic uplink port. Once enough of these metrics are met, you’ll receive an alert that says your approved for a promotion.

“Okay…” Cameron said with a slow nod. His head felt groggy and dumb as it tried to process all this information. He felt like he was understanding, but not to the extent that he needed to, which in turn lead to further questions.

“So that’s pilot rating, but why do the mechs have ratings? Aren’t they all based around the similar level of ability? Shouldn’t their rank come from the pilots and not their own? Why do they need one?”

“Upgrades dumbass,” Aurora said to his left causing his graze to turn and focus on her. She, like Logan was also leaning against the railing, but her gaze seemed to be focused on peering into the relatives mechanics shops that slowly went by.

“Upgrades?” He asked, this time pulling her attention to him. She sighed and slowly nodded, speaking in a tone that reminded Cameron of how a mother would explain something to a toddler.

“Yes. Upgrades. All enhancements that can be added onto your chassis whether it be Hardware or Software are rank locked.”

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Before Cameron could pose his follow up question, Logan had jumped in to offer a better explanation, “Think of it like this, if you had all the money on Ketris, you could theoretically buy whatever mech you wanted, kit it out to your hearts content, and boom, you got the only Sigma class mech in your sector. But you have no time put inside of it, you’re not used to it’s idiosyncrasies and are just generally unfamiliar with the unit as a whole. Now you essentially just spent perhaps trillions of silver to have a very shiny, very large, and very deadly paperweight. The ranking system keeps snot-nosed nobles or diplomats from trying to play soldier where the could get themselves, or more importantly, their teammates killed.”

It was starting to click into place for Cameron, and he felt a swelling on confidence the longer Logan spoke.

“I gotcha. So it plays hand in hand with the pilot ranking. The more missions you complete, the more confirmed kills you get, justifies to the system that you’re competent enough to handle being faster, stronger, whatever.”

“Exactly,” Logan said, nodding in approval, “Now you’re getting it.”

Cameron could feel a smile forming at the corners of his mouth, when suddenly, another question came to him, causing him to look at Logan with an even more confused gaze.

“Hold up. In that scenario, you said I’d have the only Sigma unit in the sector. Are Sigmas really that rare?”

Logan scoffed, looking over at Cameron like he couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth, “Uh… Yeah kid. They’re that rare.”

“Really?” Cameron probed, his eyes widening as he tried to pry out further details from his mentor. “I mean, if there’s this many people in Arsius Station,” He motioned to the open space around them, filled with people shopping, walking, and conversing with one another, “Just how rare can they be?”

“Around Five percent of the total population,” Logan said, his tone neutral and deadpanned.

Cameron felt like his jaw was going to hit the floor, “Five percent? That’s it?”

Logan nodded, looking around at the undulating mob of Pilots and mechanics. “Yeah. And that’s being generous if I’m being honest. Once you hit Gamma class, I’m told it slows down to a crawl. At that point, the money is amazing, but the risk is so high that people either retire, die, or open up their own GACs. Past that, the only people left are in it for the love of the game.”

“I figured you were already Gamma class.” Cameron said, watch as Logan shook his head, his eyes taking on a more reflective nature.

“Not yet, I would have been if certain events hadn’t transpired like they did. But they did, and now I’m only a Beta Primus pilot.”

“Only, my ass,” Aurora chimed in, glaring at Logan, “That’s still the top twenty percent of the population. Be proud of that.”

Logan couldn’t help but chuckle, flashing the girl a shiny smile. “Thanks Aurora, I appreciate you.”

“So…” Cameron said, looking between the two of them. “If Logan’s in the top twenty percent, and a Sigma class is only five percent, at best… What about Omega classes?”

There wasn’t an answer right away from either party. Instead, Aurora and Logan simply looked at Cameron, then at each other, before offering him a shrug.

“That’s it?!” Cameron asked, irritation apparent in his tone, “All I get is a half-assed shrug?”

“I can’t tell you what no one knows Cam,” Aurora said matter-of-factly.