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

Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142

House Thoth, Squad Leader, Squad Zero

M1 Rank: 1/1275, Tier 3 M-Rank: Null

Term: 1, Round: 2

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Daedo: everyone head to the west side of the square, formation alpha. Barran, Gaumont withdraw and get into adequate cover until everyone is in position. I will head to the east side and suck them into a pincer-like ambush. We will make them pay for allowing their position to be known so easily.

Axelzero: they are so arrogant.

Everyone else was quiet. It was not the time for idle commentary during an Arena match. The cadets had to stay focused, so comms were limited to orders and tactical information. It was a practice known as comms discipline. Where there would be some squads who chatted, bantered and add commentary to every move, squad zero were serious when it came to arena battles and particularly this one. Comms discipline was just second nature to these cadets, even Barran.

Gaumont and Barran retreated to the north and west, ducking into cover forcing the enemy to lose sight of them. They had taken minor damage from a couple of hits to their heavy exos from the standard assault rifles.

Barran: from what little I saw, Horus have one PPC, numerous Assault Rifles and one flamer.

The PPC was a particle project cannon and experimental weapon which emitted an ionic bolt. There were other versions which emitted proton bolts, but an ion cannon was the most common. The damage it dealt was both thermal and kinetic. The standard AR version did considerable damage but at a great cost to energy from the reactor. There would be no energy remaining for jump jet usage and vice versa with one of these weapons. On the plus side, it consumed no ammo.

Daedo: who has the PPC?

Barran: Fortescue.

No surprise there. The only question did she have a more advanced version registered in the AR or was she using the standard. The range of the standard was medium at best. The information from Barran was extremely valuable, knowing the limitations of each weapon helped form strategies. The Assault Rifles, which were probably standard, were good at all ranges. Even long. By themselves, they did not do a great deal of damage, but when three concentrated fire, the versatile weapon was a good choice. The Flamethrower was to deal with anyone who got to close range.

Vannier: we're in position.

Mace and Axelzero announced there were in position as well. Vannier was speaking for herself and Picard. Enemy fire had died down, which meant Horus had lost line of sight of Barran and Gaumont for the last thirty seconds.

Daedo, in the meantime, had been skirting around to the east side. He gained as much height as possible while at maximum range, for a grenade launcher, on the east of Horus' last known position.

Daedo: squad prepare for the attack. I will engage from the east, as soon I as do, I will try to lead the enemy away. As soon as you hear ”go”, charge the enemies rear. I will call the shots while I am alive. As usual, if I go down, command goes to Vannier and then by house rank.

As soon as Daedo reached the top of the building, he could see the backs, aside from one watcher, of the Horus squad. They were focused on the west as expected. They had spread out to three buildings instead of one, and he could only see six of them.

Daedo did not wait for a warning to ring out. He immediately lobbed a frag grenade on the closest building, in range, where two Horus squad members lay. Before it landed, an alert had rung out through the Horus squad. They were not able to dodge the grenade entirely, taking some damage, then they began to focus fire on him.

Jumping over the edge of his building Daedo used his grapple to jump on the wall of the next building to his east. After retreating off the top of the building, Horus had temporarily lost sight of him.

Daedo: GO GO. Attack now.

There would be time before his squad engaged, they were out of the line of sight and out of range.

Daedo hung on the south side of a building near the corner to give him eyes on any approaching enemy. He wished for a scout drone right now.

Myrmidon: fire in 3,2,1

Myrmidon hard marked a location to the west on Daedo's HUD. The AI was calculating possible trajectory and position of the enemy. While many travel paths were possible, Myrmidon only showed the highest possible outcomes. The audio cue was for something which Myrmidon deemed of the highest probabilities.

Daedo fired a grenade, the pair timed it to land as the enemy topped the building, giving them no time to dodge.

Myrmidon was rarely mistaken which was proven again on this occasion, as predicted the grenade landed at the feet of two Horus cadets.

The spectators watching holos of the match were astounded at the accuracy of the grenade launch. Chatter ensued,

was it a guess?

how did he know?

did another squad member have eyes on the opponent?

No.

They have no spy drones or cams.

Then how?

Until one said: He is Daedalus, He just knows.

The feed was delayed stopping spectators communicating information with combatants. But as far as they were concerned it was live, a few minutes delay may put the action in the past, but it was not a replay. All action was new to the Academy cadets outside of the Arena.

Myrmidon was picking up sounds from the Axel bodysuit which enhanced his monitoring capabilities. The suit also had radar and lidar which were useless unless you wanted to broadcast your own position. Daedo had radar suppression on, hiding in case the enemy decided to engage radar to find him. Which anyone would do in certain circumstances. If they had a drone, they could use its lidar or even radar. It would be toast soon afterwards, however.

Daedo was busy using hit and run tactics on the enemy who now all appeared focused on him. He used Myrmidon's predictive capabilities and lobbed frag grenades with seconds of flight time, to land at the appropriate place. He could even lob them over buildings and into positions of cover. These shots would give the enemy seconds to move out of the way, but their heavy exos reacted sluggishly. They were not adept at dodging incoming grenades

The armour on Horus' heavy exos was exceptional. They had taken hit after hit from the grenades and all except one were still operable.

They had landed a few rounds on Daedo, nothing that concerned him yet. Daedo gauged they were suitably angry at him. He did not need to communicate with his squad he knew they would be engaging in mere seconds.

Daedo presented himself on top of a building, he was out of grenades and all his enemy could see was his light exo wielding a large lancesword held in front of him.

Where was that before?

The spectators chatted. They had not seen the lancesword, it should have been on his back, sticking up above his head. Daedo was not that tall.

Paget-L: Smash the scat

Paget-L shouted over the Horus' comms. Presumably, scat was slang for short person from the lower class who pissed her off.

Horus descended upon Daedo. Assualt Rifles firing the flamer charging to get into range wanting to get some damage on the killboard report or to steal the kill himself and a PPC bolt shot across four buildings with amazing range and damage. This was not a standard PPC.

Before the Flamer arrived smoke covered the area where Daedo once stood, the PPC bolt had impacted with the cement platform, turning it from a slab to dust instantaneously. It was at this moment Horus encountered return fire from behind.