58 Book 4 - Chapter 116

M1 Y:2142

Inter-Academy Round 2 Fortescue Points: 193, Rank: 6, PR: 0.4825

Tier 3 Daedo M-Rank: 140

Term: 3, Round: 3

Daedalus Operating Capital: +1,600,000 bitcreds

The squad were packing up their gear, in silence, as they had done on many occasions before. Except, this time they had no intention of returning. They gathered in the common room, each with a cart in tow.

"Sooo…," Barran said.

"Don't start," Vannier said tersely.

"We need to stick together," Axel-Zero added. "Support each other." She followed Vannier out of their quarters and didn't look back.

Kang was at the end of the queue; she was the only one who looked back, as she pondered her very short stay at an Academy. "I won't miss this place," she said to herself. It wasn't the Academy that was making a huge difference in her life; it was the squad. Even the smug kid was worth hanging around, not to mention Picard, Vannier and Axel-Zero. Without a second thought, she followed them down the corridor and to the waiting hovervan.

They were met at the workshop by Cisse who gave each a hug in turn.

"I heard," she said, someone must have messaged her. And they gathered in the living and eating area above the main workshop floor.

"What are you going to do now?" Ikaros asked joining the group.

They all looked to Vannier. "Until we hear from Daedo, nothing," she replied.

"What if we don't?" Kang asked.

Barran shook his head dismissing the possibility.

"We have received invitations from Templars, Mercedes, Hitachi and even Renault," Vannier said. "Other than Templars they are all tier two."

"What about the deal with Fortescue?" Cisse asked the difficult question.

"I've been over the terms," Axel-Zero said, "As long as we provide equipment and they get the needed points we are meeting our obligations. There is nothing about our academic attendance or participation in the tournament itself. All the guarantees are on the equipment."

"I was so looking forward to the royal rumble," Barran said. It was the unofficial term for the twelve versus twelve match at the end of the season. It was a spectacular event and the most highly anticipated round of the year. There were also a lot of points on offer.

"Were we going to compete?" Kang asked.

Barran shrugged, "It's at the end of the year. There was a chance a few of us would."

"We can't go to another Tier three Academy," Axel-Zero said, "Not this year."

"Why don't you get private tutors until you decide where you're going so you don't fall behind. It's not like Daedalus can't afford it." Cisse suggested.

"That's an excellent idea," Vannier smiled and gave Cisse a small nod.

"Bah, terrible idea," Barran objected but no one paid him any heed.

"How do you think we should go about it?" Vannier asked. It was an open invitation for anyone to put forward an idea.

Barran rolled his eyes as the others came up with suggestions about establishing criteria, advertising, interviewing process, and even headhunting.

"You're all idiots," he said simply to no small amount of protest. "Just hire Master Haddad and have him do everything."

"Why him?" Cisse asked intrigued.

"He's good?" Barran didn't sound convincing.

"Why would he leave Fortescue?" Vannier asked.

Kang laughed, "You were in such a tizz you didn't notice. He resigned right after you all stormed out." Barran nodded at the statement he had noticed as well.

"Is he good?" Cisse directed her question towards Vannier.

"Yes. He graduated last year and led Abu Dhabi MA up a tier," She responded.

"He is progressive and stands up for what is right,' Axel-Zero stated.

"So, he isn't the type that toed the Academy line when he disagreed?" Ikaros asked.

"No, he never did," Vannier said thinking about it seriously now.

"We should invite him here for a discussion at least," Axel-Zero suggested.

"Okay, let's do that," Vannier agreed.

"It didn't take long for things to go to shit once Daedo left," Picard observed, and everyone was quiet for a moment.

"That's true," Barran said.

Axel-Zero stared at him and accused, "You're the one who lost his temper first today!"

Barran held up his hands in surrender, "Ah, Daedo would usually stop me. He could feel it coming I swear. He'd send me a sneaky message to keep a lid on it or something."

Everyone laughed.

That sounded just like Daedo and Barran.

Vannier put her hands on her face and leaned down onto the table, "Argh. It's all my fault. Instead of stopping you I joined in."

Picard was seated next to Vannier and rubbed her left shoulder, "It's one of his superpowers to ignore stupidity and ride over insults."

"What did they say during their last communications?" Ikaros asked.

"To ah. Continue studying like normal and hold everything together," Vannier almost sobbed the last word out.

"Mission accomplished!" Barran proclaimed enthusiastically. Picard gave him a vicious stare.

"Okay," Vannier sat up straight and rubbed her face, "Enough feeling sorry for myself. Axel-Zero contact Master Haddad. Barran check security and if it's in order go and then sell something. Ikaros, ensure we are good for this weekend's Inter-Academy. Kang back to your Daedalus projects. And Cisse; just do what you normally do." She said the last with a small smile at Cisse. She was starting to feel better by moving forward.

"What are we going to do?" Picard asked.

"We … are going to send a report to Daedo and Mace and when that's done. We are going to see Colonel Stanley Martin," Vannier said.

"Another drone," Daedo stated after Myrmidon had alerted him. He pulled up a screen, so Mace could see what they were tracking with the base sensors.

"Argh," She spat, "You can't shoot it down. That would confirm our position … still … it may have taken them a week, but they have tracked us down. Two drones in two hours is no coincidence."

"I think we should start shooting," Daedo stated. "If we remain passive it invites boldness from their end."

"And if we are aggressive it won't? They won't run away with their tail between their legs if they lose a couple of drones."

Daedo looked glum, "I hope they only send unmanned units," he said sadly. He did not look forward to shooting real munitions at real people. In fact, he wasn't sure if he could.

"You are the ace tactician," Mace stated, "You need to trust your judgment."

"I think right now…." He paused for a while before continuing, "I want to shoot every bot down with prejudice to show we are serious. But if they send manned craft, we will shoot a warning first."

"Will the sensors pick up humans?" She asked.

"They will unless they have dampeners designed to block lifeform signatures, and we should have an idea based on the type of craft. Okay, I'm taking these two out."

A distant pounding could be heard as the PPCs took out the two drones flying overhead. One was five kilometres away, but it didn't faze the massive Particle Projection Cannon sentry emplacement.

Mace hummed. "That's one way to send a message. Now that they know our position there is no reason to remain disconnected from the network."

"Couldn't they hack us and take down our defences?" Daedo asked.

"Please," Mace replied, "It's one thing to find us, but I did learn a lot from Master Nader, and that centred around how to keep a hacker out. She was incredible."

It was one of the few occasions they discussed Master Nader. They talked about defences and planning mostly. Sometimes the squad but rarely their parents or Master Nader.

"Let's touch base with Daedalus and then go offline again. No reason to put ourselves at risk for no reason," he said.

"Ok, I'll open a secure VR room and invite everyone from Daedalus, and see who shows up," Mace replied. "It's 1100 in Paris same as here."

Within moments the room was full with every member of Daedalus who all began asking questions.

"Woah," Daedo exclaimed, "Calm down; we can't answer everyone at once." And now that the net connection was re-established the reports from all the Daedalus members left behind began to stream in.

"Have you read the reports?" Vannier asked cutting through.

"No," Mace answered, "We remained disconnected to reduce the chance of detection. The Eye of the Sahara had remained a secret, and we wanted to keep it that way."

"So are things sorted now?" Axel-Zero asked.

"No, we just shot down one of their drones," Daedo stated which answered that question and the next.

"So … they found you," Picard stated. "What are you going to do?"

"Our defences are adequate," was all Daedo would say.

"We can come down with the Mechs," Barran suggested.

"No," Daedo flatly denied the request. "It's bad enough already. We learned last term that war is a form of diplomacy. We are just putting what we learned into practice."

"How can you be so flippant?" Cisse asked distressed.

"They are only drones," Daedo replied. "One moment, two more." His avatar went dark while Daedo and Myrmidon dealt with the invaders. He was back in a matter of seconds.

"Larger, armoured and armed this time," Daedo stated.

"Did you deal with them?" Vannier asked.

"Vaporised. I am using the latest PPC design," Daedo said. "What's happening on your end?"

"Um…" Vannier began, "It's in the report we sent last week."

Daedo opened it in the VR room where everyone could see. "Hmm," he said while listening and reading.

"Well?" Picard asked.

"I can't complain, we have done much worse," he said indicating himself and Mace. "We need to deliver on the Fortescue contract and then we can be done with them."

"We hired Master Haddad to administer and continue our studies," Vannier said. "It's all in the third report."

"That's inspired," was all Daedo could say they were biding time until he and Mace could return.

"When are you coming back?" Ikaros asked emotionally. He had been silent up until now.

"Father. I can't come back until we reach an understanding with this organisation," Daedo said.

"Then I will come and live down there," Ikaros stated firmly.

Daedo was stuck, he could not say it was too dangerous, because that would apply directly to him.

"It's perfectly safe in the base Father, but the trip here may not be," Daedo said carefully.

"How can it be perfectly safe if you are under attack?" Ikaros asked.

"We have superior shields and weapons. We are also heavily bunkered underground. It is almost impossible for them to deliver damage to us while we destroy them," Daedo said what he felt was the truth.

The cadets remained silent, and they did not want to interfere.

"Father, if we haven't reached an agreement in a week we can discuss other options," Daedo replied and looked to sign off.

"Wait," Vannier said. "Picard and I visited Colonel Martin. You need to read report two and contact him."

"We will after this skirmish. I have to go," Daedo blinked out of the VR room.

Mace waved goodbye, "We have all the reports, keep sending them, and we will do the same," She then shut off their connection.

A dozen large drones headed towards the base. They were well armoured, basically all metal, reactor and jets.

"Suicide drones?" Mace asked watching the display which contained statistical readouts and visuals.

"Yes," Daedo replied. "They are targeting the two sentries we have used so far."

"If they got through could they damage the sentries?" Mace asked.

"I'm going to send another message," Daedo said without answering her question.

The drones split into two groups, six of them were zig-zagging while the remaining six headed directly for one of the two sentries who had fired previously.

The drones closed the distance, one thousand metres and then five hundred metres several seconds later.

"Um," Mace said, "What's the message?"

The drones hammered into the sand burrowing for a moment before exploding. All six went off causing a cascade of explosions.

The two sentry guns which were targeted began to fire on the last six drones which had been conducting evasive maneuvres.

"That even when we allow them to fly to their destination they cannot hurt us," Daedo replied. The shields had repulsed the plasma fuelled explosions.

Mace whistled, "I didn't know the aurora shields could do that." The initial design deflected PPC bolts only. But thanks to Master Nader's mystery box Daedo was able to add two more spectrums. One for ballistic and another for thermal type weapons. Metal encased plasma explosions had elements of both.

"They require more power which we are able to deliver to the sentry cannons," Daedo said. "I used everything that we have been working on in those sentry guns."

"I can tell," Mace responded, "What's their power draw?"

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"We have a ten-megawatt reactor on each and another twenty megawatts in fast response storage," Daedo said. Mechs only had three to five-megawatt reactors, and most of that was utilised by the jumpjets and movement. The static sentry guns had power to burn.

"That is insane," Mace said.

"It's too much, but I wasn't taking any chances. The shields use massive amounts of power especially when their area is extended. And to get 4000m range on the bolts requires all ten megawatts," Daedo said.

An hour went by with no further incursions. The pair read through the numerous reports from their friends regarding the Academy, Daedalus and the actions they had taken.

"Do you think they will be back?" Daedo asked.

"Yes. They may have thought that was enough to get through and we certainly gave them something to think about. But they won't, and they can't give up that easily," Mace said with a tinge of sadness.

"Give your parents another try," Daedo said. "I really don't want to shoot down a manned craft. What if they send a carrier with exos and mechs next?"

"Okay," Mace agreed. She opened a link to the outside world and attempted to contact her parents.

"Please tell me you are calling to surrender," Adele Mace declared immediately.

"Um…" Mace said and looked at Daedo.

"Did you just see what happened to their drones?" Daedo asked.

"No, but I am sure that it was nothing," Gabe answered.

"The drones were impotent against our defences. And we will shoot anything they send at us. This is our territory, and they have no jurisdiction here," Daedo declared.

"Yes, we noticed that. That's how they found you. Very old school, they just looked up what you owned," Adele stated. "And when you shot down a recon drone they knew you were almost definitely there. That was a mistake. Tell me why do you have a base in the middle of nowhere?"

"That's none of your business," Mace replied. "We called to see if peace could be brokered now you knew what we were capable of. Can you do that Mum?"

Her Mother winced visibly. "Ameline. Dear. You have been extremely foolish and selfish. You have no idea what you have put your Father and me through."

"That sounds like an unnecessary lecture at this point," Mace retorted savagely.

The façade her mother was putting up began to break, her lips quivered, and a tear appeared beneath her left eye. Before long, her face was red she looked like she was ready to burst into tears.

"Ameline. We love you. You don't know how much, but I hope one day you realise the price you have extolled with your wilfulness," Adele said dramatically.

Her Father was not his amiable self either, he aggressively stated, "I hope he is worth it." The connection was cut.

"What the hell did that mean?" Mace asked herself and Daedo.

"I think…" he began, but an alarm sounded.

Their defence grid lit up with three large objects. Within moments Myrmidon had sensory data and visual. Carriers that were similar in size to their own. Which meant, aside from the ordinance the carrier itself possessed it was a possible total of twenty-four mechs and forty exos.

Daedo, Mace and Myrmidon entered a VR command mode.

"Fire a warning shot," Daedo ordered audibly for Mace's benefit. Three large particle bolts sped towards the incoming carriers which performed evasive maneuvers immediately.

It wasn't necessary because the warning shots would miss on purpose, but the pilots did not realise this nuance from the initial energy burst.

"Bios?" Daedo asked Myrmidon.

"None on the first three," his AI replied. "Any biologicals will be visible green dots."

"Watch for covert ops. The drones may be a diversion," Mace stated.

"Rather expensive diversion," Daedo observed knowing the cost of three equipped carriers.

"Total seven carriers," Myrmidon stated as four more blinked into existence on the battle map.

"Start taking them out, three-pronged fire on the lead craft," Daedo ordered. Myrmidon would fire directly at the craft centre of mass with one of the other two bolts would be directed shortly after tracking the initial evasive maneuver. Carriers were large, and while they could attempt one maneuver, it was impossible for them to pull off a further change of direction in a mere second.

The first bolt hit the carrier, but its armour held, it was not until the second and third smashed through it did it plummet towards the sand.

"Three it is then," Daedo stated. "Fire at will Myrmidon. You have six more to take out."

"All sentries?" Myrmidon asked.

"Yes, don't hold back," Daedo replied.

All ten sentry guns began to fire. The ultimate design had an array of seven hexagons with twenty-four guns. Daedo only had enough resources to complete two adjacent hexagons which equalled ten emplacements.

With all ten firing, the base literally shook from the vibrations.

Mace shivered. "If we are feeling tremors I'd hate to be on the end of it. Daedo," she said after another moment of firing, "We should get into the exos. Just in case."

"Okay. Myrmidon has this under control," he said as the third carrier went down.

They left the VR command room and got into their exos, while Myrmidon kept them updated.

They hear a loud explosion at to the south.

"Aemo?" Daedo asked. "Did you detect any foreign diggers?"

"No sir," the AI replied.

Daedo: Myrmidon, anything on sensors? I've got nothing on my HUD

Myrmidon: nothing. The vibration from the guns firing may be interfering with our sensors.

"The carriers are empty!" Daedo exclaimed over comms. "They were a decoy."

Mace nodded and held her gun at the ready. "Get behind cover," She ordered Daedo. He moved he didn't need to be told twice.

A moment later two soldiers in stealth suits rounded the corner.

"Hold fire," Mace said frantically. "It's my parents."