4 Prequel 4

Continuation of history before entering M1 at 2142

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It was not surprising, Hawkeye's team was ranked third in NA, they had tonnes of experience playing together, playing professional matches. Where the Neo-Angels were a new professional team. The experience gap and team synergy were miles apart.

While his team, the Neo-Angels were being decimated, Daedalus had positioned himself behind the enemy, he needed to use the distraction, of his teammate's destruction, to thin their numbers. One versus seven were not good odds. Not against professionals. There was the other lone Neo-Angel, but Daedalus discounted him altogether.

Before the decimation was complete Daedalus was able to get the drop on Hawkeye who had effectively used cover, effectively against the core of the Neo-Angels. He had protection towards the south, east and west of his position. There was only one issue for him, it was ineffective from the rear where Daedalus was positioned. Moments later another headshot ensued, and Daedalus had taken out Thresh's two best players, the Captain and Vice-captain.

As soon as Hawkeye went down, his teammates began to swarm and converge on their captain's last location, searching for Daedalus and revenge. This suited him perfectly as he had height and line of sight advantage, and due to the fact that it had been a one-shot kill, there was no ping showing his location on their minimap.

Myrmidon: chance of survival in current position is seventy percent. We should be able to kill four with the Railgun before they close to medium range.

They hunkered down and used the cover facing north, due to the earlier team fight they had pings for all of the enemy mechs. Although these pings were now disappearing, Myrmidon was able to calculate their most likely pathing choices.

As the enemy approached the location of their now dead captain, they spread expecting an ambush, due to their positioning it appeared they prepared for an ambush thatwould come from their flanks. They had been studying vids of him, they knew he was predispositioned to flank an enemy.

His most common tactic was to shadow an enemy syncing with them in parallel movement, while separated by obstacles, before striking with lance or railgun.

He waited for four heads to come into his line of sight and range, before opening fire in quick succession. In two seconds the HUD was spammed with the announcement of one, two, three and finally four deaths. The last had turned towards his ping but was unable to take cover or dodge in time.

The remaining four had his ping location, they knew exactly where he was. They would also expect him to move. So he moved until Myrmidon informed him his ping would have disappeared before backtracking to his initial position. Myrmidon was able to assist with pathing predictions. They were able to keep out of the line of sight the entire time. The enemy would not believe this was possible.

In the overwatch position, he waited for them to approach. Using the cover and height advantage.

The four were medium and heavy all-rounders, giving them versatility based on the strategical needs, each player had medium range weapons, medium to heavy armour and probably a spread of detection and countermeasure equipment.

Daedalus played with his noise dampening field on continuously. He could afford the power drain, and it was essential in minimising his exposure. His location ping disappeared within seconds of his last shot firing.

Myrmidon: the most likely scenario with us winning has us killing two with the Railgun while finishing off the last two with the sword lance.

The enemy had lost their leadership, the last four would not have comms with the dead players.

Their tactics had suddenly become rudimentary as they spread as they attempted to envelop his predicted location based his heading before his ping disappeared from their HUDs.

Three of them were now in his LOS, while he remained unseen. One was heading to his location, not to flush him out, but to utilise it.

Daedalus targeted the two who were not headed towards him, picking the one most likely to leave LOS first when the firing began. Boom, one down and a second later Daedalus downed his teammate. They were at medium range where his headshots did the most damage.

His location was revealed again, and before he could swing his Railgun around onto the third all-rounder, his opponent had moved behind cover. Missiles from both enemies approached his position blindly, they did not expect him to stay and get hit, they wanted to flush him out so he would lose the height advantage. That was no problem, he ran directly at them, jumping down with a crash sending a ping from the noise if it wasn't already obvious.

His Railgun hung loosely by his left, and his sword lance was held directly out front, his intentions were clear. Daedalus skidded around the first building, using all the speed he had at his disposal. If his Railgun was held, he could have sheathed it on his back and used a hand to grip the building to pull himself around, but mass was everything, the railgun was embedded into his arm. Every kilogram mattered when it came to speed, agility and energy consumption.

Daedalus doubted the physics were realistic, it was a game after all, but the game had its own ruleset which mimicked reality to a degree.

As he rounded the third corner, he spied the second last opponent just where Myrmidon predicted he would be. Myrmidon was right ninety percent of the time even with pro players. Daedalus charged and impaled the Heavy Mech in the side. The player had no time to react, one moment

Daedalus rounded the corner the next his lance was cutting through his enemies reactor core. The player was probably focused on the last ping. He would not have expected Daedalus to arrive so quickly.

<Daedalus (image of Lance Sword) kills SiReginald>

Minutes ago the match was seven versus two, with his teammate was nowhere to be seen, it was now reversed to two versus one. He could hardly blame his teammate for being of no assistance, even if he was trying to communicate with Daedalus he was muted. Even waypoints and markers were being filtered by Myrmidon.

The last enemy jumped atop the building he was using for cover and began to target Daedalus directly. It was too little too late, they should have been more aggressive when there were four remaining. If they lead with a tank, he would not be able to one shot them, and the teammates could have followed directly behind the tank. Even if they sacrificed one or two, they could have closed and at least exchanged fire. Currently, he had not been fired upon except for flushing missiles.

It seemed even the Pro teams tactics were average, or they underestimated him, which after today would not happen again. Combat was forever evolving, strategies that he introduced three months ago were being adopted across the entire player base. He would never win so easily as today, he probably should enjoy it while it lasted.

Daedalus launched up into the air and with one foot through the centre of the building kicked up onto the roof facing his opponent. His opponent had taken seven point six seconds to reach the roof in his heavy mech, Daedalus had taken one point nine.

His heavy opponent had the heaviest weapon a particle cannon held in two hands. A totally useless weapon in his opinion. Too slow to fire, too heavy to carry, its range was poor given its size. A railgun was far superior, but some players did not use it, they merely looked at the damage number, range, heat generation and energy consumption.

Too many players ignored how long it took to turn a gun, to aim and fire, its ignition speed, and most importantly the velocity of its payload.

This encounter was a perfect example, his opponent did have audio warning that he was approaching from the east, but he had only just gained his feet and did not have time to turn his weapon in Daedalus' direction before a foot came up and kicked him off the building, flat onto his back, twenty-five meters or even stories to the ground.

Myrmidon: time for the opponent to fall one point one seconds

Myrmidon marked on the ground the most likely, with eighty-eight percent certainty,placement of his opponents head and reactor core upon landing.

Daedalus did not wait for him to land and jumped. He could have directed his sword lance to the most likely location of his opponent's reactor core, however, this was a rare opportunity to crush an opponents head with his mechs heavy alloy boot.

<Daedalus (image of a Mech) kills RonaldMcDonald>

<Congratulations Daedalus MVP with eight kills and zero deaths.>

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If Daedalus' team had congratulated him and Myrmidon, they did not know. Rightly or wrongly he decided to keep them on mute. He just didn't feel like dealing with teammates. Let them do their thing, and he would do his. People from this region were usually overbearing or pushy which factored in his decision. The other reason was, despite being a genius, playing and beating adults at the age of ten, he was still quite capable of acting childish.

Daedalus had just earned sixteen bitcreds, it felt good, he had finally gotten good enough at this game for it to start paying him.

Myrmidon: we should have an agreement which better reflects the impact upon a round.

Daedalus: do you have a suggestion?

Myrmidon: yes. It should be one bitcred for the first kill, increasing by one with each kill or major damage contributor to a maximum of eight bitcreds for the eight kill. With no death penalty, if we were not good they would not hire us.

Daedalus: that is an excellent suggestion, it rewards greater impact on a round. And if it was an important match we could factorise the rate in relation to the match importance.

Both Myrmidon and Daedalus loved math, this sort of conversation was what they considered fun.

They also loved earning bitcreds, it had become a measure by which they judged their achievement. They did not have any needs right now, but there would come a time when these bitcreds came in handy, like the day he had to purchase CyberMech and the worldwide rights to the name Daedalus.

The last two rounds went by with underdogs Neo-Angels running away three nil winners against the number three ranked team in the region. Although Thresh improved their tactics against Daedalus it was all within his calculations, their adapted tactics were still predictable, and he used it against them. After three rounds he had nineteen kills and zero deaths.

Daedalus: that went well. Better than I expected.

Myrmidon: we will not lose to this level of tactics, control and coordination. Will the enemy improve?

Daedalus: they will always evolve. Even if they just steal ideas from watching us, they will improve.

Myrmidon: what can we do to prevent this?

Daedalus: nothing, we must improve as well.

Myrmidon: this is sub-optimal. It would be better if they stayed dead after we killed them.

Daedalus: this is a game. If we fought for real, then that would be the case. But we could die also.

Myrmidon: we should back up my core and my data, so it will only be you who dies.

Daedalus: no, you must fight to survive like me. We live together, we die together.

Myrmidon: very well friend.

Although the pair spent most of their time playing CyberMech and designing in spacebuild

Myrmidon was not only growing in those disciplines. It had become self-aware and thought beyond their finite world. The limits of its experience channelled its development, but it was still able to research and discuss the wider world with Etana. An adult would have been scared by its lack of controls and its unchecked growth. But Etana was a child and had no fear of his AI. It may have been naivety, or he was simply brilliant and was at ease with its growth.

Etana did not train for the Fortescue Military Academy entrance exam in 2040, and he missed 2041 as well. Cisse and Ikaros waited for him to grow out of his CyberMech phase, he would not be the same age as most students in M1 until 2043 in any case.

All pressure from his Father and Cisse was removed. There were no reminders to train physically. There were no questions regarding whether he would take the entrance exam in 2042. There was only one event on the Calendar which affected him profoundly. An event which would cause him to miss a world championship if it fell on that day.

The anniversary of his Mothers death.

Etana and his Father would attend her resting place, bring flowers and Etana would listen while his

Father told him a story about his Mother. Even if it was a mundane topic like cooking breakfast and how she used to over scramble the eggs until they frothed.

In two years Daedalus had never joined a team in CyberMech. He and Myrmidon were perennial loners, hiring themselves out for competitions. This allowed them to auction off their services and set up their own direct streaming contract.

In those two years, no one doubted who was the best CyberMech player on the planet. He single-handedly brought championships to whoever paid him.

Daedalus had polarised the community between a legion of hardcore fans to innumerable detractors who hated his lack of teamwork, mercenary style with zero loyalty to any team.

This group was usually born from fans of the championship favourites who lost to the team which hired him.

In the year 2041 Daedalus and Myrmidon made fourteen hundred bitcreds from spacebuild schematic shop sales which were dwarfed by his CyberMech earnings of over ten thousand bitcreds from all sources. To show how the relative value of these earnings, when compared to a normal person's stipend, a stipend was sixty bitcreds per year in the European Union. The house he and his father lived in was worth approximately one thousand bitcreds.

CyberMech's appeal had started to wane for Etana, he and Myrmidon had helped teams win two world championships, and despite concerted efforts to defeat him, even direct nerfs to aspects of his current playstyle Daedalus and Myrmidon developed new strategies based on the new paradigm after a nerf. The developers learned you cannot nerf skill and brilliance, nerfs just change the landscape they operate in.

No one knew who Daedalus was, he was the star and an enigma in the game. All public appearances were denied, and if a competition required a live feed of the players, he refused to participate.

Etana was twelves years old. Standing in front of his Mother's resting place with his Father, listening to another story about her. His interest in CyberMech had waned, and he remembered her wish for him. She had wished for him to attend Fortescue Military Academy and the entrance exam was in a month.

Etana: what do I need to do to train for the FMA physical tests?

Myrmidon: I will map out a thirty-day program. Do you wish to excel or pass?

Etana: pass with a contingency factor of 1.2

Myrmidon: the program is in your calendar Daedalus.

Etana: for the next six years I will be Daedo. Daedalus was our CyberMech handle. At the Military

Academy, I will be Daedo.

Myrmidon: am I still Myrmidon?

Daedo: always. It is your handle and your name. We own the rights, no one can take it from you in any game or application.

Myrmidon: thank you Daedo. I like my name.

Without any prompting from his Father or Cisse, Etana began training the next day. Myrmidon had analysed the competencies required, the most successful thirty-day training regimes and laid out a plan for Etana.

On the first day, Etana was convinced the plan was impossible. He was supposed to run one kilometre then walk one for a total of ten kilometres in under ninety minutes. He discovered while running one kilometre his lungs would burst, and by the end, his legs were dropping off. The one kilometre walk was a blessing.

Myrmidon: you need to walk faster in order to achieve ninety minutes.

Etana barely recovered he had to walk so fast before he had to run again. For someone who sat or lay as he played cybernetically in a VR game, this was torture.

Myrmidon: perhaps we should play some AR games. At least you will be moving, and your muscles will be in better condition.

Daedo: not helping.

He completed the ten-kilometre run walk, twice daily, once in the morning and once before dark. After he recovered, he did push-ups, sit-ups and trained with squeeze grips before lunch. By the twelfth day, he was able to at least jog the entire ten kilometres.

Myrmidon kept him informed that his progress was enough to pass with a small cushion. And in the last week, they practised an obstacle course which his father had built over the last week in his spare time. To be accurate his father used a few old robots from work to build it, he merely designed it and programmed them.

On the day of his entrance exam, Cisse turned up at their house, uninvited, a full three hours early.