68 Book 4 - Chapter 126

Meanwhile Elsewhere

Y: 2142

Inter-Academy Round 10 Fortescue Points: 1271, Rank: 3, PR: 0.794

Term: 4, Round 5

Daedalus Financial Position: +4,700,000 bitcreds

The world had changed.

There was a new company that everyone was talking about.

Poor Master Haddad was inundated with questions from media and wannabe media. The top news media and streamers who spouted garbage every day to their 100k followers because they had nothing better to do.

He was with his old friend, Lee Austin, who had attended Abu Dhabi Military Academy at the same time as Omar Haddad and had helped them to victory as the best mech pilot at the academy.

Omar Haddad was an olive-skinned man of Arabic descent. While Lee Austin was a white Texan who won a scholarship to the Academy due to his dedication in piloting every machine known to man from a young age. Lee wasn't and engineer, but he was a machine whisperer, known for getting the most out of an average mech or VTOL or sports car.

They were an odd pair. But their differences helped make them good friends. They were still young, Master Haddad gone directly from U3 to Fortescue the next year. He was twenty as was Lee.

"I'm going to have to go into hiding if this keeps up Lee," Omar stated.

"Oh, poor Omar, working for the brightest company in the world since Svarski burst onto the scene twenty years ago."

"It was forty, learn your history, and it's no longer a company. If I stay, I will have to sign up to their Private Military," Omar Haddad replied.

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"How is that different to any Academy?" Lee asked.

"It's not, but until now I was merely a trumped-up ethical tutor," Omar said.

"You should have known someone like you couldn't last at a place like Fortescue, they have always been dodgy," Lee observed.

"Be the change you want to see young Lee," Omar replied.

Lee laughed, "Young? We're the same age you idiot."

"You don't act like it." Omar observed.

"So, why am I here? Why did the great Omar Haddad, strategist of Abu Dhabi Military Academy fly all the way to Texas and invite me to lunch in my own town?"

"You are here because you live here, I thought that was obvious," Omar joked.

"You know what I mean, why am I here at lunch with you?" Lee asked.

"Because I don't want to do this without you. You wouldn't believe me if I told you how intense these kids are. They make the Inter-Academy team we had look like amateurs," Omar stated.

"For such a short sentence you raise a hundred questions. Let's start with 'do' what?" Lee asked.

"Start a new Academy in the Sahara a thousand kilometres from anywhere," Omar said.

"It is cooled adequately?" Lee asked.

"Is that your first question? When asked to start a brand-new Academy run by a 13yo genius in the middle of nowhere?" Omar was aghast.

"I trust your judgment, just not your attention to detail on the important items," Lee retorted.

"Yes, as I said. They are intense. The world could burn, and they would have almost limitless food, water and materials. They even made friends with their neighbours who offered fight a private military with them."

"Tell me that story another time," Lee chuckled, "Now why do you want me?"

"Because you're the best and I trust you," Omar stated.

Lee nodded, "Just because someone is a good pilot doesn't make them a good teacher. And what if I want to serve and not teach?"

"You idiot, teaching is serving," Omar laughed at his friend's face. "Okay, I'm sure you can do both here. As I said these kids are intense. You really won't understand what I mean until you meet them. Think about it. They enter Fortescue as M1s and before term two has ended they basically took over the inter-academy competition. As M1!"

"That does paint a scary picture," Lee admitted. "And Omar, I trust you too. Should we do this?" He was well aware of the news with the Troika reactor.

"Yes," Master Haddad replied and hoped he was right for his friend's sake.

The Fortescue Company had never been embroiled in such a media storm. It was international and, for them, unprecedented.

Yasmin Fortescue was the figurative head of communications and her Husband was by her side as well as her Father. The Chairman of Fortescue Group. She would take the lead on this press conference to ensure they maximised this opportunity. Or at least, maintained the status quo.

Normally media was all virtual interviews, she thought as she sat looking out at the assembled media. There were a hundred in attendance, in actual attendance. There were probably hundreds more on the other end of the VR capable sensors.

The media was squeezed into the main Fortescue conference room, usually reserved for business networking and internal events with their human capital.

The three sat behind a desk while most of the media stood. Drinks had been provided, she was doing everything she could in this whirlwind to put Fortescue forward.

"Thank you all for coming," Yasmin Fortescue began, "We are honoured so many of you are here in person." She tried not to sound intimidated by the sheer number of faces who spoke to every end of the planet.

"We have a brief statement before opening it up to questions, which I'm sure you have," she said before he husband stood to deliver the statement.

"Xavier Fortescue, CEO of Fortescue Group," he began introducing himself.

"We here at Fortescue are like a Family and when one of our own achieves greatness, even if they have left us, we are happy for them. At our Military Academy at the beginning of the year it soon became apparent there was something special about this group. Two of our Chiefs identified the cadet named Daedo in the first week as someone who was of such a talent our entrance tests did not pick up the depth of his genius.

"By the end of the second term Fortescue recognised this talent by formally entering into a commercial arrangement with a new start-up company named Daedalus. This company was predominately run by the cadets from our Academy. The cadets in Thoth squad zero. We would have dearly loved for this relationship to continue, but to no fault of Fortescue or Daedalus there was an incident with a former Master. Master Nader. And due to the relationship, this Master had with Cadet Daedo he was forced to flee in order to escape the international police.

"If we knew any of this in advance we would have moved to protect him. We still have an ongoing relationship with Daedalus and it is thanks to them that after the penultimate round we finished second, only missing promotion by seventeen points. Which when you compare to last year, where we came in second to last, is a major achievement. And this is due to all our cadets who fought using the Daedalus equipment. The now famous corporation which was started by our cadets. We are very proud."

Xavier sat. Yasmin and Jacque nodded at a job well done.

Yasmin now stood.

"Yasmin Fortescue, Head of Acquisitions at Fortescue Group. I will be fielding your questions," she introduced herself formally.

All the journalists pooled questions and then held a lottery for position. The question with the highest value went first. Fortescue were blind to the process unless they had someone sending them information from the journalist's side.

"Streams at ten," the journalist announced, "Mrs Fortescue, is it true that the other squad members were expelled in the third term? And if so why? And if not, why did they leave?"

Yasmin nodded, realising this would probably get out since they were no longer attending and were all holed up in the Sahara of all places, "They were not expelled. They were all exemplary cadets of the highest quality and we were sorry to lose them. As to why they left, they went to Daedalus. They will have to explain further. Fortescue will not comment on Daedalus business."

Xavier nodded, affirmation of a job well done. One down a hundred to go.

"Doxy Deadline," a famous news streaming organisation, known for investigative work and breaking scandals. Yasmin gulped, this was one group she had flagged as dangerous. "The researcher, Cisse Reas, is it true you are suing her?"

Yasmin sighed inwardly, "Yes, but its mere formality in order to get documents in discovery. We need to know if she worked on the Troika project while she was part of Fortescue. Depending what information is revealed in discovery we will either drop the case or take further action. This is normal amongst large corporations and especially with IP as revolutionary as this. We wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't take this action."

"But she was a contractor and her project was Zero Point Energy. All the researchers and world leading physicist agree the two are like chalk and cheese. The antimatter reactor is totally unrelated," the Doxy Deadline journalist was allowed two follow-up questions.

Yasmin nodded, "I am not a physicist, so I cannot comment on the relatability. I am also not legal counsel, they are just doing their job."

"Doing their job. sounds like a cop out," the Doxy Deadline journalist replied, "What is your response to widespread anger that you are trying to ride on the coat tails of Daedalus' discovery and this is a frivolous lawsuit?"

"What widespread anger?" Yasmin asked bemused.

"Mrs Fortescue, this is live, and I have over twenty million downvotes on your response and only five hundred upvotes. There are already over a million comments with the words frivolous and Fortescue scumbags. If that isn't widespread anger I don't know what is."

"Thank you, we will take these concerns seriously and rethink our strategy."

A dozen more questions rolled by until Yuli from ALN was at the front of the line. She was well known for breaking Daedalus stories. She had an in with the company that every journalist would kill for. It was hilarious that ALN was Academy League Network, they followed Academy matches, they did not do any news that wasn't league related.

"Mrs Fortescue, Yuli ALN, "she began and, "In your opening statement from the CEO, Fortescue put forward that they were enthusiastic allies and supportive partners with Daedalus. Is this true in all your dealings with the Private Military organisation known as Daedalus?"

"Excuse me?" Yasmin asked.

"The corporation known as Daedalus is merely a civilian department which is entirely owned and operated by Daedalus Private Military. This is publicly available information. The entity simply known as Daedalus is not a corporation it's a military entity. Please answer the question," Yuli finished with her explanation that sounded like a threat.

If anyone was to have legal entanglements with Daedalus the rules had just changed. Many disputes would go through the EUDF military judicial system rather than civilian court system. As Fortescue well knew from operating an Academy, different rules applied to Military organisations.

"To my knowledge it is true," Yasmin lied.

A shiver ran down Yasmin's spine as Yuli displayed a contract up on the journalists' screen. "This is a contract offer from Fortescue two months ago. One which was rejected by Daedalus. Their lawyers stated, which was confirmed by independent legal advice we procured, that:

This clause buried here at 4.3.3 which points to another clause in 12.1.4, would result in Fortescue not paying Daedalus anything for the initial contract, which was not an insignificant sum of two million bitcreds and the escrow of two million would have been forfeited to Fortescue as well. A four million bitcred turnaround, when they successfully achieved the result of the initial contract. What is your response to this duplicitous offer and its contradiction of your opening statement?"

Yasmin spluttered and rocked back on her heels. She stood dumbfounded her mouth opening and closing.

Xavier stood and gently moved her aside, "If I may," he said, "I haven't seen this contract offer before. We will investigate, and this is certainly not the way we do business at Fortescue."

No one believed a word.

The journalist behind Yuli nodded, yielding her his question. They must have had an arrangement she began, "In an interview with Commander Daedo," and at the mention of his name there was a jealous wave through the crowd, no one else had the access Yuli did. This would propel her to the top of the news media, "I asked him what he thought of Fortescue," she grinned like an evil witch and asked her question, "Can you speculate to what he said?"

Xavier wished he didn't have to take over from Yasmin, this just went from bad to worse and Daedalus had not commented publicly at all on Fortescue. They thought they were in the clear.

"I couldn't say sorry," Xavier stammered, "I had only one interaction and did not know him that well."

Yasmin's' Father looked horrified at the proceedings, he had built this company from a fledgling enterprise fifty years ago. It was now crashing and burning before his eyes. The public sentiment towards the group who did not invest in RnD and merely manufactured was not plummeting before his eyes. It was disintegrating.

"He said, and I quote, 'I don't think about them at all'" the response received a round of laughter from all the journalists present and disintegrated the narrative Fortescue were trying to create that they were a beloved partner of Daedalus. It was akin to him saying their existence was beneath his notice.

Yuli didn't even need the next follow-up question.

All that could be heard for the next thirty seconds was journalists laughing and repeating.

"I don't think about them at all."