20 M1 - Term: 1, Round: 1 (1/2)
Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142
House Thoth, Squad Zero
M1 Rank: ?/1275, Tier 3 M-Rank: Null
Term: 1, Round: 1
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Six members of squad zero rose at 0500 packed some food and left for their workshop weekend. They looked like they were going hiking.
Gaumont said he was too busy to attend especially since they would not be working on the heavy, but the light exo. He stayed behind to work on the math and physics problems and would possibly join them later.
The sun would not rise until 0630, so at 0530 it was almost full dark. They closed their helmets and used external low light cameras to see as they ran down towards the industrial centre Nanterre and their mechbay workshop.
They would run north for six kilometres before following The Seine for another thirteen kilometres. It was a long run for Daedo and would take him almost ninety minutes. Barran ran with them for the entire distance before running back to retrieve his bike, he ran thirty-eight kilometres, almost an entire marathon, at the age of thirteen in a time well under three hours.
The team thoroughly inspected the equipment and layout of the workshop the previous evening, everyone had ideas on how to upgrade, but in reality, they had already spent a lot of bitcred. It was time to improve their light exos, not spend more on accommodation alcoves, showers and upgrading kitchens. Vannier, Picard and Axelzero were busy cleaning, the place was a mess compared to their quarters at the Academy.
The previous owners had left mountains of junk, or spare parts, behind. The yard and testing bay were overflowing with old equipment.
Barran probably preferred running a marathon to cleaning hence why he was completing the extra distance. When he returned with his bike, he could use it to fetch small things they might need. He could even ride back to Ikaros' workshop if needed. In reality, any small thing could be ordered and delivered by drone. Most parts, materials and equipment were available locally in Garenne or Nanterre.
Daedo, Mace and Ikaros began work on the light exo itself.
”The materials order is ready,” Ikaros said.
Daedo sent the order to all the cadets of squad zero, it should not be just him and Mace working on the exos, everyone was in squad zero of Thoth for a reason.
”Is it just me or is this a standard alloy?” Mace asked examining the light exo closely.
”You are correct, I expected something military grade at least, not this,” Ikaros answered.
”It is designed this way,” Daedo said, ”I noticed the exos the M3 were using were much better than ours. I realised they have been improving them for two years. Some cadets would assume the M3 cadets are just bigger and stronger, but, their suits had been upgraded. I cannot help but assume the Academy does not tell us everything on purpose and leaves it to our own initiative. It is evident that we are meant to upgrade our exos, and the ones provided to us are substandard on purpose.”
”That makes perfect sense, why did Barran not tell us?” Mace asked. Barran's sister was in U1 and must have known this.
Daedo shrugged.
”You can bet that Karinne from Horus would know, she probably has Fortescue techs working on it for her,” Mace said.
”I am a Fortescue tech,” Ikaros said.
Mace laughed nervously, ”but you are on our side,” she recovered smiling at Daedo's Father and patting his shoulder in an attempt to cover her faux pas. It was almost out of character for the quiet, diminutive rank three cadet.
”Fortescue does not have many talented engineers, they mostly manufacture from patents,” he said. ”RnD costs too much and is too hit and miss for them.”
Suddenly there was a pained look on Ikaros' face. His wife had died completing RnD for Fortescue, and it had always been high pressure to achieve a commercial outcome. Fortescue's attitude towards investing heavily into RnD was poor. And when they did they wanted commercial outcomes in the short term, which meant potentially prosperous research was dumped if it did not show early results.
”Fortescue has been beaten so many times by small inventors and larger companies like DaVinci or Svarski that they now specialise in manufacturing economically. They do not focus on RnD at all. So even if this Karine Fortescue has the company backing her, we can easily do better with what we have here. That is my opinion,” Ikaros finished.
”I am surprised they have never asked you to help Father,” Daedo said. Even if Fortescue techs helped Karine, they would either have to come to the Academy mech bay, or she would have to ship her exos off to an authorised site, just as they had. Given that her company was Fortescue Group itself, this would be quite possible.
”Who said they haven't?” he answered raising an eyebrow.
Daedo laughed. They probably had, and he knocked them back.
Vannier, Axelzero and Picard had finished cleaning the kitchen and offices after a couple of hours.
”We can layout out sleeping bags here in the office, it will be like camping,” Axelzero said.
”Well we did look like we wandered off for a hiking and camping weekend,” Vannier answered, ”we may as well play the part.”
”Can we fix up the gunnery range next?” Picard asked.
”After the loading bay, that place is a mess. It would be great if it was organised when we get some deliveries later today,” Vannier said.
”We should program a robot to keep this place clean, it could work all week while we are at the academy,” Axelzero said.
”That's a great idea, but let's get it set up right first,” Vannier said.
”A constructor bot could retile this whole place, it needs it,” Picard said.
”All of which costs creds, we discussed this, we cannot spend until we start earning some creds,” Vannier said.
”I know, I know, it is just so messy and run down,” Picard said.
”It is a mech manufacturing and repair facility which was not profitable,” Vannier said exasperatedly. Picard was the last person she expected to whine. However, she was probably used to living in immaculate conditions on a military base.
”We will improve it slowly. Let's get the loading bay tidied up and then head to the range,” Axelzero said sympathetically.
The facility was extremely large for just the seven of them. It was not designed to mass manufacture mechs, but it could repair or build a mech as tall as six meters on the main workshop floor. Alternatively, it had enough room on the main workshop floor to repair twenty light exos if they had that many. This did not include the adjoining machining and fabricating rooms.
There was also a foundry for casting metal parts. A robotic weave for winding and threading any type of material. Assuming the heads were changed and the programming available.
The top floor of the facility only covered half the entire area, it consisted of the offices, kitchen, labs and meeting rooms.
The ground floor had the workshops which were two or three stories high at one end and the loading bay and machining rooms at the other.
Beneath the ground floor was the testing facility and gunnery range, it was tall enough for a four-metre mech to run and wield weapons. It would not be able to complete a jump test, however, that would have to be done outside in the lot.
There was another floor beneath the ground floor, but it had been sealed off and was disused for decades. When the squad opened the sealed door they quickly closed it, there was not mysterious cache of ancient weapons to be found, it was just rubble, water, vermin and it smelled horrible.
It was not long before Vannier, Axelzero and Picard had finished cleaning and organizing the loading bay before a drone landed dropping off a crate and it was followed by another.
Axelzero ordered a drone to come and remove the skip full of rubbish before the trio directed a loader to deliver the crates to Daedo and his team in the workshop.
They followed the loader into the bay.
”What's in the crates?” Axelzero asked Daedo, Mace and Ikaros.
”Aromatic polyamides, aramids, aluminium, graphene, nickel, copper, silicon carbide, boron nitride, tungsten, magnesium, nylon, hydrocarbon monomers and a variety catalyst material,” Ikaros answered.
”Uh, okay, um…,” Axelzero stuttered.
”We are redesigning the light exo composition,” Daedo explained, ”we want to reduce the weight, increase the structural integrity, increase mobility and flexibility.”
”Is this against the rules?” Picard asked.
”There are no rules on exo armour other than the maximum size and weight which mainly applies to a heavy exo, size of the power core and restrictions regarding design. Such as it has to conform to the body shape with less than eighty percent variation and not utilise wheels, tracks or other propulsion methods are regulated in the rules.”
”Which means you could put skates on it if they are sized under five percent of total height and weight. They fall under tracks and wheels,” Daedo informed them.
”Oh they would be awesome, can we have skates?” Axelzero asked.
”The terrain is always changing and uncertain, but its something we can consider as an option,” Daedo answered.
”It's improbable, the Gauntlet and Arena usually have uneven terrain,” Vannier added.