87 M1: Term 2, Round: 4

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 Operating Capital: 160,000 bitcreds

.

<break>

.

"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 Axelzero, 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.

"Axelzero. 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 Dawgs 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 Axelzero's reach."

"I'm confused," Kang said. "If Axelzero 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," Axelzero 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?" Axelzero 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, repairs and logistics were worn solely at the entrant's expense.

"Really?" Axelzero asked again, unsure of herself.

"We've decided that Old Dawg is your designated mech until you want an upgrade," Daedo replied. Unbeknownst to Axelzero the rest of Daedalus had agreed that Old Dawg would be her mech to pilot and customise.

"Never!" Axelzero 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!" Axelzero 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, it was possible to use Old Dawg to spice up the game and give Axelzero 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 Axelzero 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 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 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.

**Morganne Barran: You want to exclude your research and offsite work from the review? That is not what Master Nader instructed me to do.

**Daedo: Master Nader has no authority over our research or workshop activities.

**Morganne Barran: Are you sure you want to displease your master. She is a formidable woman.

**Daedo: That is none of your concern.

**Morganne Barran: You have been doing so well without me, but I really don't understand this antagonism. I am only offering to help.

**Daedo: and we have accepted and given you the scope.

**Morganne Barran: is Master Nader aware of this?

**Vannier: Why don't you talk to her? See where that gets you.

**Morganne Barran: I will. I am sorry if this causes you trouble.

**Barran: No you're not. If you were, you wouldn't approach Master Nader in the first place.

**Morganne Barran: Don't believe everything Brice tells you. He has been having disciplinary issues for a while now.

Barran's first name was Brice, and when his sister referred to him as a delinquent Daedo immediately saw through her ploy. He had learned through human studies that people handling was very similar to a strategy game. Manipulating a person was similar to moving a piece on a board. Morganne had speculated that Barran had turned them against her and she was trying to discredit him.

Before the Academy, Daedo was poor at reading motives and seeing manipulations, but once he was able to connect the words to moves, he was able to bring his strategic thinking skills into this new game.

**Daedo: Be careful Morganne. We can see through your manipulations.

Daedo kicked Morganne from the VR chat, her verbal maneuvering was just wasting their time. It was just the three cadets left in the VR room, so they left the room as well to meet upstairs.

"Daedo. What can I say? Thank you," Barran said.

"Hmm?" Daedo replied. "I was just protecting the squad's interests."

"The way you stood up for me. No one has ever done that for me before," Barran said moved.

"What sort of family do you have?" Vannier asked in a rhetorical fashion.

Barran gave him a genuine hug, while Daedo stood stunned and stiff as a board.

"Aww," Vannier said, "Should I leave?" There was a massive smile on her face.

"Don't ruin the moment," Barran shot back. He then pushed Daedo out to arm's length and asked, "Do we have to worry about Master Nader?"

"No," Daedo said.

"Do you have her wrapped around your little finger now?" Barran asked intrigued and impressed.

"We have an understanding," Daedo said choosing his words carefully.

"Man, that's impressive. If you asked me to bet on it I would have never backed you to do it," Barran said. "She is one scary bitch."

"You don't know the half of it," Vannier added then she asked, "How did you do it?"

"I didn't do anything," Daedo said distancing himself. "You are giving me credit for something I haven't done. We're working towards a common goal, that's all."

"So how do you know my sister will have no success with Master Nader?" Barran asked.

"Master Nader will allow me to make the decision and if I make the wrong one, she will turn that into a learning opportunity," Daedo distorted the truth. "Her learning opportunities are not fun."

Barran accepted the explanation with a change of demeanour, he patted Daedo on the back and grinned. "Get back to work, its only twenty minutes until the final."

<break>

The entire crew from Daedalus gathered in the meeting room where they ate their meals. The stream of the pro league hand to hand combat final was showing on three of the walls. On one screen Vannier moved the camera to give the point of view Mister Kang had, on the central screen she kept the curated main stream, and on the third, she lifted the camera to an overhead position so the cadets could see the movements of both Mechs.

A drone brought in fruit which they unpacked and shared around.

"What a treat!" Ikaros exclaimed. "Real fruit." It was a luxury which normal families could not afford. Fresh fruit was sold at a premium compared to bot-kitchen meals or preserved foods that were readily available and cheap.

When the full complement of Daedalus was gathered, they were no longer a squad, with the addition of the two adults they were more akin to a crew or family.

They watched as Dead Beat narrowly lost the final, the mech was solid and powerful, but the pilot of Kick Start was superb and had done his homework. When Mister Kang improved, however, he would be extremely hard to beat given the power, speed and durability of his mech.

The Daedalus family cheered, booed and had a great time despite the loss. They would remember days like this fondly. The peace, the safety and a relatively carefree existence compared to what was to come in the years ahead.

"Didn't you pay for the ad-free stream?" Barran asked Vannier.

"Yes," she replied before she saw the news ticker running across the bottom. "Oh, that's just breaking news I have that enabled."

"Holy Shit!" Kang exclaimed.

The news ticker read 'Breaking - Military Academy scandal: cadets exposed to illegal gene therapy experiments.'

Pandemonium broke loose in the dining, slash, meeting room.

"Open the link," Axelzero asked Vannier.

The scene at the pro league dropped down to a small box, and the news item opened. Anonymous sources, recordings, and accusations of illegal gene therapy experiments on Mid-level cadets at the Fortescue Military Academy in Europe. Then a string of rumours, each more devastating than the last. Deaths of cadets, mutated children and coverups all connected back to the CEO and Chairman of Fortescue. It was a massive distortion of the facts, something often conjectured, but now the cadets learned first hand how the news media loved to embellish, exaggerate and outright lie.

"Master Nader doesn't stuff around," Picard said in astonishment.

"It could have been anyone she sent it on to," Daedo speculated.

"What does this mean for us?" Vannier asked.

"No matter what, we carry on," Daedo stated.

.

<break>

.

Morganne Barran wasn't upset nor surprised. Her brother had ruined any chance she had of completing her goal and any intel gathering she was able to perform would have been a waste of her time due to his ultimate interference in any acquisition.

"My report is ready Father," she said as she sat down next to the Barran Corp CEO, Reece Barran, her and Brice's Father. She flicked him the document as the Autocar sped off.

"I'll review that later. Summarise for me," he requested.

"Brice has made any acquisition impossible, instead of becoming a trusted advisor Daedalus mistrust me more than an unknown from the street," Morganne stated.

"Brice holds a twenty percent stake?" Reece Barran, CEO of Barran Corp asked.

"Yes Father," she said dutifully.

"What's the potential?" he asked.

"Substantial. I have information that they have an excellent AI foundation which is the number one seller in its market. And there are rumours that their exo could become standard equipment for the EUDF," Morganne said.

"Quantity?" he asked.

"One hundred thousand units at seven hundred and fifty to one kay bitcreds," Morganne replied.

"Inform your Mother. Suggest to her to have Brice's trust fund manager to advise him to purchase more equity," he said. "I suggest fifty-kay, not enough to spook him, but your Mother will ultimately decide."

"And until he reaches U1, you can take control of the equity?" Morganne asked.

"Unless he emancipates, yes. But its nothing massive. Let's keep the family together, yes?" he said.

"Father, they have done this in a short period of time, the potential is massive," Morganne stated.

"We don't deal in maybes Morganne," her Father instructed.

"What's going to happen to Brice?" Morganne asked.

"I'm only the CEO Morganne. Your Mother rules on these matters," he replied.

Morganne shivered. Her father was a shrewd businessman, that's why her Mother married him. And although her mother had no official title in the company, The Lady Alvia Barran was the undisputed Matriarch of the family, it's business and other assets, including wayward sons.

She may have been angry at her little brother, and he may have brought this on himself, but still, she was worried for him. He was charming, talented but massively foolhardy.