by Skully
“I am all for getting as many bitcreds as we can, but you haven’t exactly told us why,” Barran said.
“I know some details, but I think Barran is right. I think it's time to share the plan so we can all work towards it together,” Vannier said calmly and pleadingly.
“I haven’t shared plans because I don’t have any firm plans. Just ideas,” Daedo said.
“What are the ideas?” Mace asked curiously.
“A launchpad from the spiral, growing our manufacturing base and preparing for the invasion,” Daedo said.
“If we are staying to defend against the invasion, why do we need a launchpad on the spiral. Isn’t that for the ultra-rich and their companies to escape the planet?” Axel-Zero asked.
“None of your families have space on the spiral do they?” Daedo asked.
Everyone shook their head.
“My parents don’t even believe there is an invasion coming they are like Mace’s they think it's paranoia or a conspiracy for tax credits,” Axel-Zero said.
Vannier agreed, “Mine are the same.”
“Mine are so tight-fisted and short-sighted they will wait to see the alien ships and then spend everything they have to escape,” Barran said.
“As you know, my father only cares about pro league,” Kang said.
Picard shrugged, “Mine don’t talk about anything like that.”
“Don’t or won’t?” Barran asked.
Picard shrugged again, “Take your pick.”
“The reason I want space on the spiral is so we can build an off-world mining and manufacturing base before the invasion,” Daedo stated calmly.
“Holy fecking what?” Barran bawled. ”I thought you would stop surprising me with this shit, but, crap. That is some, out-there-thinking.”
“Hence the need for a billion bitcreds. You weren’t joking,” Axel-Zero said.
“It’s just an idea at this stage,” Daedo said. “But if the enemy has us boxed in here, we need a plan B.”
“And they probably know all about us, whereas we know nothing about them,” Vannier said sharing her thoughts out loud.
Daedo was quiet. He did know a little. But he couldn’t share. Not yet!
“The main goals for this year are to continue our research and to make bitcreds? Correct?” Mace asked. She was astute as always.
Daedo nodded. “We can’t do much without a fortune. And the best way to make a fortune while improving our capability is with advanced tech. While our skills are important, they are secondary to these two goals.”
“And that’s what you meant when you said ‘Feck Fortescue’ which I loved by the way,” Barran said. “I didn’t think you used words like that.”
“I save them for rare occasions,” Daedo said smiling.
“And for effect,” Vannier noticed.
Daedo nodded.
“Shit. Being with you guys is like being with a bunch of world-class crazy genius mother feckers,” Kang said excitedly.
“But you like it?” Picard asked.
“Yeah it is getting interesting now! All the research, academic, training and building without catching a breath was… well, it was intense. But, this is some next level, shit!” Kang said.
“What do you think, Picard?” Daedo asked. She never offered opinions where Vannier and Barran always did.
“Although it’s not a plan yet, I like it! I am simple. I will just do my thing kicking your arse on the mat,” She said.
“Axel-Zero?” Vannier asked.
“I’m in. I know this is more than what we discussed when we started Daedalus and even if we are wrong, who cares! We aren’t hurting anyone,” Axel-Zero said.
Daedo looked at Mace. She merely nodded once.
“Okay. I think we are all in for the crazy mother, ahem, plan to dominate this planet and outer space in the name of Daedalus protector of Earth,” Vannier announced with enthusiasm.
Kang scoffed. “Dontcha think that’s going too far? We’re like thirteen?”
The six original members of Daedalus disagreed, and they showed Kang this with serious silence in response to her question.
“Really?” Kang asked.
“Yes really,” Picard replied.
“Who’s going to deliver this information to Master Nader?” Vannier asked changing the subject. She looked at Daedo.
“Daedo,” Barran said.
“Daedo,” Kang said.
“Daedo,” Axel-Zero said.
“Daedo,” Mace said with a large grin at Daedo.
“I guess you’re all too chicken,” Daedo said, smiling, shaking his head
“I can come with you if you like,” Vannier offered, and Daedo shook his head. Vannier noticed the change in behaviour over the last five weeks. “You take me less and less, I am beginning to think..”
“You have a thing with Nader!” Barran interrupted, and everyone laughed.
The look on Daedo’s face said ‘if you only knew’, but it was lost on the squad. They had no conception of what had been happening. Why would they?
Sufficient time had passed, and the library had been quiet for an hour, so the squad left their study room to head back to their quarters. It had become the norm that when they walked through the academy, other squads would stand aside and stare. It was normal for Squad Zero, but it still irked Kang.
“Why do they do that?” She asked, looking at M3 Osiris squad fourteen who had stopped walking, moved to the side of the corridor and just watched them pass by while whispering to each other.
Picard, who had become Kang’s best friend in the squad and probably the world because she wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, answered, “It’s the same on a military base, minus the whispering when a high ranking officer walks by.”
Barran scoffed, “We are legends that’s why!”
Kang looked at him sceptically, “Yeah right! We are M1, those cadets were M3.”
“We are notorious, especially Daedo, he would have ranked first on the M3 Gauntlet for the first two rounds, and the only reason he didn’t is that he isn’t in M3,” Picard said. “And we made the semi-finals of the first tier M3 tournament last term.”
“Oh. So we are notorious. I’ve been wondering why everyone looked at us funny from the first week,” Kang beamed. “And to think I almost didn’t join this band of notorious crazy mother feckers.”
“Language,” Picard reminded her. “We’re not enlisted.”
Kang sighed.
Daedo had asked Master Nader for a meeting before they left the library and when they arrived at the quarters, he went straight in to see her.
Without asking she opened the VR room and pulled them both inside before running through her usual security checks.
Master Nader stood waiting for Daedo to begin, her arms crossed. The mystery box had not made an appearance.
“We came across some interesting information tonight,” Daedo began and sent Master Nader the full feed.
She reviewed it in a few minutes.
“None of this is surprising,” She stated.
“Can you do something about the gene therapy?” Daedo asked.
“Technically it’s not illegal if the therapy has been registered and approved,” Master Nader replied.
“You don’t expect that’s the case?” Daedo asked.
“No, I would be surprised. But what they are talking about here could be twisted into discussing legal therapies. There is no proof showing which therapies Fortescue was insisting would be administered.” Master Nader responded.
“This isn’t about what is legal, my squad wants it stopped. They don’t want the M3 cadets pressured into doing something dangerous,” Daedo said.
“What do you want?” Master Nader asked.
“I want good morale in my squad,” Daedo answered truthfully. “If I were to push something through that they were unhappy with it certainly wouldn’t be this.”
“I can have my experts work on improving existing human gene therapies
and making them safer. It would not be difficult,” Master Nader said calmly.
“That is the last thing I want,” Daedo replied sternly.
“There will come a day when your team will need to work on advanced biology, it will be central to your survival,” Master Nader said ominously.
“How do you know it will be central?” Daedo asked.
“Logic,” Master Nader simply said.
Daedo sighed. “We are getting off topic. What can you do with this information?”
“I can send it anonymously to parents, I have data on all cadets,” Master Nader said.
“What else? What if their parents are keen for the cadets to be on the first team?” Daedo asked.
“Would a parent want their child put in a dangerous situation?” Master Nader asked.
“I would have answered “no!” six months ago. Now, I am not so sure,” Daedo replied.
“Agreed. I can send it to all the Masters, the Chiefs and key supporters of the Academy which have a tendency for honourable behaviour,” Master Nader replied.
“Do that, please. Even if there is no proof of illegal gene therapy, with that much attention, they couldn’t get away with it,” Daedo responded.
“What about the match-fixing deal with Renault?” Master Nader asked. “I can use this information with great effect.”
“Save it. Use it if you have to,” Daedo said. “But let me know if you do please.”
Master Nader waited for a few moments before asking, “Have you overcome your fears, Cadet?”
“You mean my reservations. The only thing I am afraid of doing is the wrong thing,” Daedo replied.
“Semantics!” She said emphatically. “You do not have the luxury of time.” Then her voice calmed, her tone grew more serious, “You cannot waste it with inaction due to doubt.”
“Why me?” Daedo asked, incredulously.
“Why have you been chosen? Why is it not someone else?” Master Nader asked. “Someone older. Someone in a position of power?”
“Yes, exactly,” Daedo replied.
“What makes you think you are the only vessel?” Master Nader responded.
“You do!” Daedo said exasperatedly. “Time and again you have said it is up to me. To us.”
“And it is. But you are not alone,” Master Nader replied.
“Are you alone? Are you the only one?” Daedo asked.
“You are treading in areas that are not pertinent to your task,” Master Nader said. “I see your doubt is an issue and I am doing all I can to remove it. And that is why I will tell you. No, I am not alone. There are more like me.”
“How many?” Daedo asked.
“I don’t know. But it is more than a few,” Master Nader said.
Daedo sighed before asking, “Give me the box.”
Chapter 15
Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142
House Thoth, Squad Leader, Squad Zero
M1 Rank: 1/1275, Tier 3 M-Rank: Null
Term: 2, Round: 4
Daedalus Financial Position 160,000 bitcreds
◆◆◆
“Move, move,” Barran yelled as he skated past Picard and slid into the safe zone.
“You rip up that exo much more, and Daedo will yell at you,” Picard observed as she crossed the line.
In the centre stood Axel-Zero, piloting Old Dawg, and she was surrounded by Daedo, Vannier and Kang.
Mace ran directly at Daedo, and as soon as she closed to four metres, she darted to the right.
“Axel-Zero, grab her,” Daedo yelled.
Old Dawg’s hand swept in front of Mace who pulled up centimetres short, before she began to run again, once the hand had passed. She then launched herself feet first between Old Dawg's legs and skidded through them on her butt.
Vannier swept around the back, closing on Mace as she got up, as Daedo closed from the opposite side. As soon as she was on her feet, Mace put on an astonishing burst of speed to escape the pair to make the safe zone on the other side.
“Har,” Barran called, “You didn’t get any of us that time. It’s over Red Rover.”
Daedo inspected Barran’s exo from a couple of metres. “How can you do more damage to an exo playing Red Rover than you did through an entire eleven matches in the tournament?”
“It’s not my fault Old Dawg keeps bashing me,” Barran stated genuinely.
“Ah, yes it is,” Picard said. “Stay out of Axel-Zero’s reach.”
“I’m confused,” Kang said. “If Axel-Zero is the pilot, why do we keep calling Old Dawg; ‘he’?”
“Because it’s a 'he'. Old Dawg is a terrible name for a girl mech,” Axel-Zero said. “And we aren’t changing his name or gender.”
Kang looked at the mech and tilted her head to the side, “Seriously, you guys are weird.” It was common in the pro league for female pilots to have female mechs, and male pilots to have male mechs. But there were all sorts, and mechs did change pilots on occasion.
“Are we going to enter Old Dawg in the qualifiers this break?” Axel-Zero asked.
“Up to you,” Daedo said. The qualifiers were a preliminary tournament to gain entry into a pro league event. Every event had at least four positions for qualifiers out of the one hundred and twenty-eight strong field. Most mechs were seeded from previous events, but if they were out of the top hundred and twenty-four, they would need to come through the qualifiers.
It could be where dreams were made, but mostly it was where bitcred accounts were busted. There was no purse for the qualifiers and the cost to compete, make repairs and logistics were worn solely at the entrant's expense.
“Really?” Axel-Zero asked again, unsure of herself.
“We’ve decided that Old Dawg is your designated mech until you want an upgrade,” Daedo replied. Unbeknownst to Axel-Zero the rest of Daedalus had agreed that Old Dawg would be her mech to pilot and customise.
“Never!” Axel-Zero exclaimed.
“You should be thankful, now the rest of us have to wait for the new Daedo designed mechs,” Barran informed her with his wry sense of humour.
“Team effort,” Daedo corrected. “Mace is supplying polymers and fluids. Kang worked out all the structural and armour plating, not to mention what alloy compounds we use in key parts like the actuators. Ikaros has been instrumental in the design. And Cisse is building micro fusion reactors.”
“Old Dawg has spirit!” Axel-Zero announced with feeling. “Where others may fall, he will triumph.”
It was Saturday, and the squad were blowing off some steam in their new training arena by playing Red Rover. The venue was much larger than the testing range on lower one, so it was possible to use Old Dawg to spice up the game and give Axel-Zero some practice with the controls and movement.
Daedo could have started building the new mechs immediately, but he wanted to wait. There would be learnings coming from Old Dawg that he wanted to implement and with the exception of Axel-Zero he wanted the squad focused on exos as they should be for this stage of their learning.
And the longer he waited, gave Old Dawg the prestige of being their only and best mech. While Dead Beat now contained much of their tech, Daedalus were mere sponsors in his case.
“Father made it to the finals!” Kang announced happily.
“Who is he up against?” Picard asked.
Vannier pulled up the stream and displayed it on the back wall of the arena. “I got a sub. We can watch,” she said.
It was Dead Beat versus Kick Start, the unusual roundhouse kicking mech.
“It’s not on for another hour,” Vannier noticed. “Let's get an early dinner and watch it then. Everyone back to projects for an hour.”
The squad dispersed, leaving the exos where they stood. The robots would collect and take back to the workshop for repairs.
Daedo was wearing his helmet working in VR on thermal dynamics in fusion power systems.
Daedo: Myrmidon, we need to update this model. What were the other prime
candidates available on the net? Maybe we can combine the best parts of a few different models.
Myrmidon: KAIST have one for sale. We skipped it and opted for an open source model as they are easily tweaked.
Daedo: I’d rather tweak this one. But I don’t have time. Find us a programmer or AI who specialises in coding and thermal energy systems.
As they worked, a message came through from an unexpected source.
Morganne Barran: Daedo, are you available?
He sighed. He had been avoiding a discussion with her for a few weeks stating he was too busy.
Daedo: I am, but I have a meeting in thirty minutes.
Morganne Barran: Can I visit your workshop after the meeting? I am in the area.
Daedo: No.
Morganne Barran: Why not? Master Nader…
Daedo interrupted her
Daedo: We can have a VR meeting now. That’s the best I can do. I can call in Vannier and your brother.
Morganne Barran: Can we do it without my brother?
Daedo: No.
Daedo opened another VR room, one without his research material, and invited the other two squad members.
Barran: What's up?
Daedo: We are going to have a VR meeting with Morganne.
Barran: Can we tell her to get lost?
Vannier: What did Master Nader say?
Daedo: Leave it to me. Either of you can jump in if you feel the need.
Daedo invited Morganne Barran into the VR room, and she appeared instantly, waving at the trio. In VR you could appear as anything you wanted, but the current generation considered it bad form to appear as anything but yourself. Changing clothes was permissible, and making yourself tiny, or something cute was also acceptable on occasion. The three Daedalus cadets appeared as they were, in their Daedalus bodysuits. Morganne Barran was in a bodysuit also but with a skirt and high boots adding flavour to her outfit.
Morganne Barran: Thanks for meeting with me.
Daedo: Thanks for agreeing to come in VR.
Morganne Barran: Your results this term have been impressive, but I still think I can help. When can we begin the review?
Daedo: You are welcome to watch our tournament matches and submit a review of our tactics. You are also welcome to review our academic learning methods, schedule and progress.