73 M1 - Term: 2, Round: 2

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: 2

Daedalus Operating Capital: 140,000 bitcreds

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"I have automated this form for every sale of the two-point-six exo," Axelzero stated. "It's not a lot, the micropumps, servos and the actuators are all current technology which attracts royalties. Everything else is royalty-free, including the reactor."

"So all Barran needs to do is submit his order and it's all automated?" Vannier asked.

"Yes, including the manufacture and delivery if he enters the address," Daedo replied.

"I feel much more relaxed knowing we don't have to rely on Barran sending off the IPO forms and payment," Vannier added.

"Hello, I'm right here!" Barran exclaimed thumping his chest.

He received nods and smiles in affirmation. However, no apologies nor explanations were forthcoming.

"The last thing we want to do is anger the IPO," Vannier stated. "They hold a big stick, the least of which is they can suspend and cancel payments on all our royalties. Thanks, Axelzero."

Daedo nodded, he was glad all the business side of Daedalus was under control and out of the way. Master Nader directing him to assign specialisations, and then extending it to the company aspect made everything run smoother. Axelzero had taken on the extra workload handling both Drones and Finance. She was doing excellent work in both areas.

"Thanks, Axelzero. You are really on top of your specialisations," Daedo said. Human studies and the example from Vannier were having an effect on him. It wasn't difficult, he only had to express what he was thinking when it came to positive reinforcement.

Barran was moving around like a monkey on his stool.

"You too Barran, our cred balance has fully recovered in just one week after sponsoring Dead Beat. Thanks." Daedo added.

"And we accrued the creds for Kang's future fees until the end of U3," Axelzero stated while her squadmates wondered what accrued meant.

All the cadets thanked Axelzero and Barran, adding well done and other small congratulations. It was a load off all their minds. Barran was exceeding expectations just as much as Axelzero.

Daedo had argued with his father about taking over his own fees. Both his Father and Cisse would have none of it. They had set up a fund which would pay for his fees where they both put in the creds. Between them they had it covered. At least they didn't get involved with the costs for bodysuits, exos and other equipment.

The weekend schedule now included a Daedalus group meeting every Saturday after the morning run. First was business, then came operations and projects.

Daedo presented his report first, "We are up to version two-point eight of the exo. Thanks to Mace we have a new hydraulic fluid, which showed excellent test results during the week. We have adopted it immediately. The next leap in performance won't be coming from me. It will come from Mace. I will leave that for her report. We will continue to sell the two-point six version, it's registered, and all parts are fully tracked with the IPO. But we will use the latest version ourselves."

Daedo moved through the dot points quickly, it was important to be efficient with the information otherwise the meeting would drag on for hours. He spoke about the exo, Cisse's power project briefly and his research into physics.

"I have been spending most of my free time working with Myrmidon, researching and thinking about the physics which relates to the reactor and propulsion. There are no results to show this week, but we are making headway."

This statement was pure fabrication. There were massive breakthroughs coming out of Nader's mystery box. Daedo knew he needed to lay the groundwork for the breakthroughs immediately. And release them as slowly as possible. It was a good thing the entire team, including Cisse, thought he and Myrmidon were pure geniuses. But even then it was going to be a rough journey.

Barran didn't have a tech project, but he was head of security which fell under operations. He went next, he had nothing to report other than discussing probable threats.

"During my studies in strategy. Yes, I do study," Barran said tongue in cheek, "I focused on probable threats. This is similar to when we hypothesized what could possibly happen. Has anything happened in the meantime that I should know about?"

"The alien threat net rumour campaign," Daedo admitted. "The bots are registered to me, and they were not hidden well enough." Daedo could not discuss Myrmidon's rogue AI friends. He had promised. But it was something that Barran needed to be aware of to do his job. If anything, leaving it this long to report was a mistake on Daedo's part.

"Seriously?" several cadets questioned Daedo. Barran hushed them.

"Send me the details," Barran said. "I will get advice off a couple of good robolawyers."

Vannier went next, "Testing is underway for the new version of the railgun. A few things are holding us back, but we have been able to increase the rate of fire without affecting the velocity, accuracy or noise dissipation."

"Our next round of major breakthroughs will come from munitions. I feel bad about saying this, but that lies mostly in Mace's area. When she is finished with polymers, we will work together on improving our munitions."

Picard stood and delivered a report on physical training for the squad. Nutritional plans were updated and a new one created for Kang.

"Hang on," Kang said, "I have to eat what you tell me? I can't just eat what I want from the cafeteria menus?"

"Yes you can, as long as the replacement meal meets the protein, fibre, mineral, carbohydrate and vitamin requirements. And you can only drink water."

"This is…." Kang was slightly angry and very frustrated.

"I thought you were going to smash me in the obstacle course?" Daedo asked Kang.

"So if I smash you I can eat what I want?" Kang asked.

"You can eat what you want now," Daedo responded, "But if you do, you will never beat me."

"We'll see," Kang said with determination but strangely added showing a sudden sense of responsibility, "We're getting off track. Sorry."

Picard moved on rather than continue to try to convince Kang. That was something she could do in private.

"We have the prototype swordlance and shield in the test bay, we can practice with them this weekend. The test results have been positive. Thanks to Kang; the shield's durability has been increased by twenty-six percent, and the swordlance's density has been increased allowing for more damage, with the stronger exos, while staying within regulation size."

Axelzero presented her drones report, "There are thirty drones in the test bay. Please take them for a test drive and inform me of your recommendation. We will conduct tests and present a report next week showing: speed, mobility type, damage type, damage amount, area of effect, runtime, armour factor, stealth, agility and ease of use. However, the quantitative report will need to be backed up with your preferences."

"I am really looking forward to playing with those drones," Mace stated. Everyone agreed to send Axelzero their input.

"This last week I have been working on the polymer compound used to create the mesh in our exo armour. I have been making headway with research known materials and compounds, but I am a long way off improving what is already known. Kang has been helpful showing me the process she goes through when creating new metal composites or alloys. Please be patient, but I am hoping to put forward a recommendation in time for the end of term tournament. The worst case will be narrowing down the best currently available compound for this purpose, and we utilise it," Mace recited.

"It sounds like it will be a long time before Mace will be able to assist you, Vannier," Daedo noted. "Can I suggest you follow Axelzero's example and cheat by trawling through the IPO patent database?"

Vannier nodded smiling at Mace and Axelzero. "Of course," she replied.

"I checked the rules this week and had an expert confirm," Axelzero stated. "With an IPO database patented material we only need to pay a royalty if we are manufacturing and selling. If we are creating prototypes or for our own Academy use it is royalty-free as long as it's not one of the special case patents."

"Does that mean other squads can use our exo patent?" Barran asked.

"Yes and no. We only registered the mesh design, there is no blueprint for our exo at the IPO," Axelzero replied. "So unless they can find our mesh design and design and build the rest of the exo themselves, its useless to them."

Barran nodded, "good to know."

"They would have to be technically very good, which I am sure some squads are, but they won't be the norm," Daedo stated.

"As you said yourself Barran. An off the shelf reactor as good as ours costs one kay," Vannier added. Barran was selling an entire set of exos, seven or eight, for fifteen thousand bitcreds.

"Okay, let's wrap this up and get back to projects and testing. Meals at regular times and Martial training at 1100," Vannier concluded the meeting.

Kang raised her hand, "Ah, what about me?"

"Do you have a report ready?" Vannier asked kindly.

"Ah no, but I can talk about what I am going to do for the next week," Kang said.

Vannier nodded, "Okay. I was going to give you another week, but please continue."

"I will keep this short," Kang said, "I will mostly be working to catch up on academics and physical activities. But I want to start working on a new mixture for the superconductor in the railgun and another for the ceramic plates on the exo. I think I can do better than the ceramics using a composite."

"That's fantastic!" Vannier said excitedly, "The superconductor effects everything; velocity, accuracy and power consumption."

Everyone in the squad patted Kang on the back, messed her hair or just cheered her from across the room. It was a genuine, spontaneous outburst which made her feel like part of the team.

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Daedo left Barran and Axelzero playing drone wars and headed down to lower two.

"Daedo. Finished your meetings?" Cisse asked. Daedo had made a habit of spending some time with Cisse every day he was in the workshop. It was also decided that Ikaros and Cisse would only attend the meeting if they felt they need, and Cisse did not report on her experiments to the squad, so she never did.

"Yeah, at 0930. Been playing with some drones before I came down to visit you," Daedo said.

"How is everything going?" Cisse asked as she dismissed an air display that was between her and Daedo.

"Would you be surprised if I said very good?" Daedo answered a question with a question albeit one that had the answer she was seeking.

"Not at all," she shook her head.

On the contrary, while the squad and Daedalus activities were advancing admirably, Master Nader and here revelations were a major concern for Daedo. He barely slept the previous night. Tossing and turning so much his Father commented in the morning.

"I have good news, I have something back from one of our Military partners," Daedo lied. He pulled out a particle sensor blueprint.

The blueprint was above his arm, and the pushed and enlarged it out into the air next to Cisse."This is a particle sensor blueprint. We should be able to build it here and hook it up to your control panel."

Cisse looked at it and asked, "Do you have the datasheet?"

Daedo nodded, "I had to create one, so forgive its sparseness. This is apparently sensitive and not available on the IPO. It has the key information though."

Cisse read the datasheet that Daedo created from memory from the reports on the sensor from Nader's mystery box.

"Holy," Cisse exclaimed. While most people were not religious, it was still one of their favourite words when expressing surprise. "It can track subatomic particles within ten to the minus twenty-one metres (10-21m)?"

Daedo nodded, "I understand that is the case."

"Do you know what this means?" Cisse asked.

Daedo nodded, "I have an idea. It means you will be able to track and therefore control the movement of all the particles, even quarks and anti-quarks."

"Yes, this is a major breakthrough for us. It brings us one step closer," Cisse said excitedly. "Well done Daedo. Do you know why they are hoarding this technology? And why they just gave it to you?"

"It's a trade for something else I am working on. We have an agreement that if we crack the reactor, we will patent the design immediately for everyone to utilize," Daedo lied again.

"That sounds strange but fair," Cisse shook her head. "I'll let you handle that."

Something was still bothering her, so she added, "The military seems to have their eyes on you. They might like you now. But, be careful, will you?"

"I will, I promise," Daedo replied.

Daedo checked a few of Cisse's readouts on her latest tests. "Oh, I have more good news. I've been working on EMF theory all week. I am hoping to have something to you next week."

"That would be amazing," Cisse said. "You know at this rate we may actually crack this thing." Cisse beamed.

Daedo felt like shit. The lying was necessary, but it didn't mean he had to feel good about it. It was one thing to pretend a design came from some mysterious military. It was quite another to pretend a major breakthrough in electromagnetic field generation and control came from him.

Daedo's last mission for the day was to talk to Kang about Dead Beat.

"I'll see you at lunch?" Daedo asked heading to the goods lift.

"I have an alarm set this time," Cisse replied. She had a habit of missing meals when she was neck deep in a task.

"Okay. See you then," Daedo said as he closed the door.

He headed directly to the foundry. If Kang wasn't there, he would message her.

"Hi," Daedo said. Predictably Kang was in the foundry, and she was separating materials by hand. Not trusting the robots nor the software he and his Father wrote to remote control the foundry.

"Hi," Kang said and continued to work.

Daedo smiled inwardly. She was just like him in some ways. He had treated people like this many times.

"I'd like to talk to you about Dead Beat," Daedo said. "Unless you would prefer I talk directly with Kang Lee."

"It's okay. I need to speak to my Father anyway. He doesn't like it if I don't message him every day," Kang replied.

"Whenever he can get Dead Beat back here I have the new mesh underarmour design ready. My calculations show it will give Dead Beat a major speed boost and a minor strength boost. We can also do some sparring and set him up with martial combat tutorials," Daedo said.

"Oh," she said softly, and then more loudly, "He'll be happy. Except for the tutorials part. He will see that as a criticism of his piloting."

"His piloting is poor. I will let you handle that message as you see fit," Daedo said. "But if one of us pilots Dead Beat during the next break, it will be more embarrassing for him."

"One of us?" Kang asked.

"You," Daedo answered.

"You want me to pilot Dead Beat?" She asked again.

"Only in the breaks," Daedo answered with a nod. "Your Father better start improving, or you will make him look poor."

"How am I supposed to tell him this?" Kang asked.

Daedo thought for a moment, "You could ask the Human Studies AI and workshop out a scenario with it. Or ask Vannier. She is good at this sort of thing. Or you could just tell him. 'Father, you need to improve your piloting.' Your choice," Daedo replied.

Kang laughed, "You make it sound easy. Okay, I will try the last option."

Daedo waited for a moment.

"Something else?" Kang asked succinctly.

"Hmm, how come you aren't using the control software?" Daedo asked.

"I will. I just like to mix by hand to get a gut feeling when I start a new formula rather than setting specific ratios," Kang replied. "Once this is done I will tweak and test using your software. It's not bad."

"Good," Daedo said and then forced himself to add, "You had a good first week. Even Master Nader thought you did well."

"Everyone seems scared of her. She didn't seem so bad," Kang mentioned.

"Just follow the others lead when she is around. It's not like she has a short temper, but she can be," he paused and searched for the correct word, "Forceful, when a cadet doesn't act properly," Daedo advised.

"Vannier said much the same thing," Kang said as she busied herself with sorting materials.

"I'll see you at martial combat training," Daedo said before leaving.

Kang shook her head and thought, just what she needed, more sparring. Before selecting a cold rolled plate of titanium.

[[Skully is not human. He is a disembodied floating skull who likes cosplay girls.]]

[[But even though he does not sleep, eat or defecate, even he cannot write more than one chapter per day. The undead author does not mind people asking, but the answer will always be no. One chapter per day is the maximum meathead. A well-crafted chapter like 93 which the undead author crafted today took ten hours. Then he needs to edit the above chapter, to ensure quality for you meathead readers and then for the other thirteen hours he needs to recover by looking at images of cosplay girls.]]

[[The above is not a rant it is an explanation. It is good when readers ask for more, it means they love the story. And this not-rant was too long for authors thought, plus we needed crap here to defeat the crap reading app]]