10 M1 - Term: 1, Round: 1 (2/2)

”We can look at the bookings again after orientation. I am surprised there isn't more here now, I thought 0700 would be primetime,” Barran suggested.

”They are probably at the gunnery range or the exo AR arena playing around,” Axelzero said, ”we are in Thoth after all. This is the obstacle course. I bet Shu's has a hundred cadets lining up now.”

”We should think about arranging friendlies in the arena with squads ranked ten or lower,” Vannier speculated how the term should occur. She knew from older cadets that they would get one arena slot and they could trade combined use with other squads, and practice against one another.

”That's a great idea. Damn, someone's coming. We should start,” Barran said.

The door read the cadets identifiers as they filed in. Registering them for a circuit attempt.

Daedo had trained for a month before the entrance exam, running eight kilometres twice a day. After he passed the physical, he had stopped his daily runs and strength exercises. He realised now that was a mistake.

The course was punishing, climbing a sheer wall was time-consuming, jumping over from one moving a tile to another was difficult when out of breath. The slackwire required balance that he did not have. He had to attempt it four times. And there was a lot of running, up and down to keep you out of breath. Even swinging on the rings made his arms ache and it was not long before Barran passed him. Although he started a full three minutes behind, he had passed him within the first ten minutes.

Then Vannier passed him, Axelzero and finally before finishing the course, and starting a whopping twelve minutes behind, Gaumont passed him just after the zig-zag run through the pretend ruins.

Daedo's lungs were burning, and every muscle in his body ached. There were some that ached that he did not know existed before this morning. Myrmidon was little help, all he could do was tell Daedo the best time to jump on the pendulums and report on his suits internal health sensors.

The worse part was the last incline, it was fairly steep, at least forty degrees, but it also spiralled which it made impossible to carry momentum from the flat section before the start. Daedo had fallen to his knees four times before finally cresting the top and what was supposed to be a sprint finish, he walked.

His time was over seventy-six minutes, he barely had enough time to shower and have breakfast before the first class started. Fortunately, the travelators were running today, and he hightailed it back to their living quarters. He was surprised to see everyone, except Barran, had waited for him. And he did not blame Barran in the slightest, who now had the record of thirty-nine minutes and forty-one seconds. He was the fastest in Thoth by almost ten percent and was second overall on the M1 rank board.

There were a few times slower than Daedo, but perhaps those cadets were fooling around with times of ninety minutes.

Time flew by, 0800 was fast approaching as he and his squadmates hustled to their first lecture. The orientation lectures all took place in the M1 auditorium which was large enough to accommodate cadets from all the houses, all twelve hundred and seventy-five.

There were stools and a bar for the cadets to lean on, some cadets took notes. However, notes and audio capture of the orientation were provided. The head teacher for each subject was simply known as Chief.

Each Chief had thousands of cadets, and there were only thirty of them in the entire academy. The Chiefs for M1 to M3 carried them through the same ten subjects which would only change, to become more specialised, in U1 to U3. In the Middle Academy, there were ten Chiefs, and the Upper Academy had twenty. Signifying the increase in subject choice and variety.

Most of the work the Academic Chiefs completed was in preparation, primarily creating the curricula and programming their robot aides. Once the interactive tutes, usually in VR were made, the cadets could learn at their own pace. The chief would either code an aide or create a specialised AI to discourse with the cadet. There were many other media the Chiefs used to convey the subject material, they used vids, audio streams and even reading matter.

The respective Chief merely had to keep on top of the content and check any anomalies with the grading from the robots. This was true for Maths, Physics and Reference. As well as the theory parts of Tech Studies, AI nurturing and Philosophy.

The practical or other components that needed in-person interaction were scheduled and completed in groups with a one, two or three forty-five minute sessions per week.

Physical, Gunnery and Piloting were entirely interactive. With the Chief or a robot aide present for each class. They each had two classes per week, and as with all interactive classes, the length of a double was ninety minutes.

The Cadets were going to work hard, extremely hard for the age of thirteen. With ten subjects they would be spending anywhere from sixty to eighty hours per week to achieve first-rate results.

The orientation for Maths and Physics informed the cadets on how the information was to be delivered and how they were to progress through the modules. There would be ongoing testing and challenges, but overall no final test. It would be impossible to cheat because the Chief would know if it was not you completing the challenges and tests.

The Math chief would set five problems for the term, these problems were meant to challenge the top cadets. Where the physics chief had one practical project for the term. The project was to be of the Cadets choosing, it just had to match the terms curricula in some way.

Gaumont leaned in to whisper to Daedo, ”so we could theoretically complete all the work for the ten-week term and then put Math and Physics aside to focus on other subjects.”

”That may be the point of this method,” Daedo whispered back, ”it is not only teaching us these subjects but time management and prioritisation.”

”What are you going to do?” Gaumont asked.

”Just as you said, I have bigger problems than Maths and Physics. I will probably spend more time on my weaker subjects,” Daedo replied.

Gaumont smiled. If Daedo skimmed through Maths and Physics, he wouldn't get the top grades. Gaumont wanted him to succeed, just not beat him.

The room was full of all M1 cadets. Daedo looked around, but no one really stood out. There were just twelve hundred kids sitting in their suits listening attentively, or using some screen. Daedo had his helmet on his back, it could be useful in the downtime to get some work done. Or he could just talk to his squadmates, which strangely, after the dry lecture seemed more appealing. Even his brain needed to rest. During the whole lecture, he was thinking up study strategies.

”What's the best way to approach these two subjects? Think as a team, not as an individual,” Vannier opined.

”You want to work through these classes as a team?” Barran asked.

”It was made clear that strategy is open to us, and helping each other is not forbidden, only cheating is. Even Master Nader encouraged Daedo to help his squadmates,” she said.

”And we are competing against everyone, especially Horus, they have Karine Fortescue and the Paget sisters,” Mace said.

”But in the end who are we really competing against?” Daedo asked seriously.

”What do you mean?” Gaumont asked, ”there is an intra-house ranking, a year ranking and there are competitions. In order to do well in the competition surely you have to excel at piloting, gunnery, strategy and engineering.”

”And then, who do Fortescue compete against?” Daedo asked.

”The other Academies,” Mace answered seeing where he was going, ”in the end cadets like Karine Fortescue will be your squadmate against KAIST or Templars. If you make the Fortescue team.”

”And then after you have graduated?” Daedo asked.

”Other companies?” Barran answered unsure of himself.

Daedo shook his head.

”It does not matter, all that matters is we excel, whether it's alone or as a team, it does not matter,” Daedo said.

Vannier stared at him. He had a way of thinking that was both strange and amazing. She had merely thought of pooling their resources to not worry about competing against each other but to worry about M1 and competing against the other Houses. Where Daedo had thought ahead ten steps. Is this what Master Nader meant when she said think things through.

”What do you think we should do?” Axelzero asked Daedo, Mace and Barran nodded agreement at the question.

He shrugged, ”do your best and help each other if needed. It would be the most efficient way. I can see where some guidance with Tech studies and AI nurturing will assist, but the others are self-taught from the learning assets. You either complete it, or you struggle at a particular point and if you struggle you seek assistance,” he replied simply.

”That's simple,” Barran opined, ”I expected some master strategy coming from Daedalus.”

”Efficiency is usually simple,” Daedo answered.

”Speaking of help, I have constructed a training regime to assist me to improve fourteen aspects of Physical Training in order to complete the obstacle course faster. Would you review Barran?” he asked.

Vannier peered at him, ”Barran is probably not the best choice, he is too naturally talented, you want Picard to review.”

Barran looked offended for a moment until he realised he didn't want to review the document anyway.

Daedo thought about what she said, reviewed the content and she was correct, Picard had worked hard to get where she is, Barran had it handed to him. She would have a keen understanding of using training method as a means of improvement where Barran would be a good guide for strategies in overcoming the obstacles themselves while completing the course.

Picard, who was the proud owner of his bespoke AI, nodded and gave a rare smile.

”Sent,” Daedo said succinctly. The next lecture was starting.