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

Daedo: I am going direct, keep up the good work with target prediction and assist. It has been spectacularly accurate.

Myrmidon: of course, what do you expect?

Myrmidon overlayed the AR environment with a see-through red enemy to show predicted positions behind buildings and travel paths. The AI also marked Daedo's minimap. Other than target assist Myrmidon was managing the flow rates into the jumpjets to eek every possible second of runtime out of them. Taking what was twenty-two seconds and extending it to almost thirty by reducing power when it was not needed to achieve the objective.

Daedo used his grapple and a second of jumpjet to make a left-hand turn at speed, and if an AI could be surprised the enemy NPCs would have been.

He flew over them firing down at their heads. His speed alone increased their inaccuracy, and if they were actual human players, they would have been surprised as well. But robots did not care, they acquired a target and fired. Nothing was predictable nor surprising to them.

Daedo wondered if this was a strength. Even the fact he was flying upside down it did not disturb them. Between the motion of his grappler from his right hand, he took purchase on a building's cornerstone on his left, at first he used the grapple to pull himself up and towards the building, but when he fired his jumpjets, he somersaulted. Adding the somersault to the twist as he turned his right side towards the building he ended up flying upside down when he passed the enemy AI. He fired downwards at their heads and backs whilst passing before coming full circle and landing and skidding on all fours, stopping in the centre of a crossroads past their position.

He turned left again and ran west at full speed. The only enemy AI he had to kill were directly in front of him, the rest were too far away to be alerted or to arrive in time.

The most effective range of the Assualt Rifle he used was twenty to thirty meters, although it could kill from further, it was difficult if your target was moving. And the damage past thirty meters was reduced significantly due to the inability to hit with a cluster. With his level of skill in any case. Picard or Vannier could probably eek an extra ten meters of effective range out of the weapon.

The urban landscape of this scenario suited the range of this weapon as the buildings kept enemy combatants at short range most of the time. When they were in the line of sight, the scenario did not have many NPCs placed on rooftops or from sniper positions.

Daedo dispatched the last three NPCs without taking much damage. With Myrmidon's assistance and his speed, he avoided being swarmed by fifteen enemy AI which is what can happen at this flag. He did this by taking out the AI which were sure to aggro on his travel path to the flag while avoiding those which were out of aggro range or would arrive too late to prevent him from capturing and escaping. A slower heavy mech did not have this luxury.

The last flag was in an open courtyard and was quite literally a flag on a pole. Daedo pulled it down and replaced it with a House Thoth flag as the scenario dictated. It did not matter that once he left an enemy could simply change it back, and what did a piece of cloth achieve anyway? It was probably included for nostalgic reasons he figured.

If he designed this map, he would have had snipers or at least robot sentry guns on the surrounding buildings. But then he realised, he would not actually protect a piece of cloth with snipers if this was a real situation.

Once the flag was captured the enemy, AI were not deactivated, and he still had to make it back to the starting position which was now his home point.

Daedo used every single ounce of power left for his jumpjets and his last grapple to clear the line of buildings. He ran across them jumping under his own and the exos power from building to building in a direct line towards his home point. When the gap became too large, he dive rolled from the building. He was fast enough to leave the enemy AI behind, if he was slower, it was quite possible he would had to fight three or six more.

Although his exo had a mobility factor of one point six, this was an enhancement of his own speed. Which, as everyone knew, was not up to scratch with the elite cadets. Daedo just hoped his investigation, planning and strategy allowed him to surpass the physically superior cadets.

He arrived back to the home point out of breath having used all his grenades, grapple hooks and jumpjet runtime. He had given it his all.

Although enemy kills did not give a score in this scenario, it was clear that in others they did, or possibly a deduction for missed enemies. Which meant that although this scenario was purely based on the time to complete it was still given a score upon completion.

Daedo moved from almost last place with a score of fifty to second with a score of two hundred and thirty-nine. He was ranked first for Thoth and second overall in M1, on his first serious attempt. Even Mace, Vannier, Axelzero and Picard with their updated exos did not beat him, although they had improved significantly as well.

GauntletScore R1 A6Squad RankM1 Rank (1275)

Daedo23912

Barran216617

Gaumont1397822

Picard22947

Axelzero222510

Vannier23235

Mace23324

Thoth Squad zero now had five cadets in the top ten. It sent shockwaves through the entire M1 year and possibly caused talk amongst the others. It was not unheard of for a squad to perform exceedingly well in overall rankings. However, they were Thoth, and this was the Gauntlet. Thoth was expected to and often held five of the top ten places for subjects like Maths and Physics, not a combat orientated activity.

Barran was beside himself. ”This thing is a handicap!” he indicated his still standard heavy exo.

”It won't be long before you get a faster, stronger and better-armoured version,” Vannier responded. ”Stop being a baby.”

”But…it's not fair!” Barran continued to bawl.

”You just don't like being rank six in the squad, you are used to being first or second,” Axelzero noted.

”I also slipped to seventeenth overall….wait…will my exo be ready by Friday?” Barran approached Daedo and grabbed his arm. ”Please tell me yes, please.”

”Aren't you in charge of its manufacture?” Daedo asked in return.

”Yes, and it should be, I just want you to guarantee it,” Barran implored him.

”There are no guarantees in war Barran. But you should be excited. If you achieved a score of two sixteen in that piece of junk imagine what you will do with the improved model.” Daedo answered.

Barran still looked downcast. After a few seconds past, he lifted his head and beamed, ”I am going to invest all my remaining creds into new machines. What is it we need, injection moulds and a type four foundry?

After a minute of contemplation. ”Type four if it is Hitachi make,” Daedo specified, ”they are the best for our needs.”

”What about the injection moulding machine?” Barran asked.

”I will get my father to send you a link, he would probably want something very specific in terms of the base unit and the head itself,” Daedo answered.

”You know we will need creds for materials too,” Vannier added.

”We should all put in another thousand to purchase materials, Daedo has been spending his own creds up until now,” Axelzero said.

”Bitcreds are easy to come by,” Daedo said waving the comment away, ”a good exo is not.”

Vannier noticed Gaumont hanging at the back, head downcast, he was the only member of their squad outside of the top twenty and languishing at rank eight hundred or so. She hoped the actual proof of cooperation leading to success would sink into his thick skull.