35 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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M1 Horus Squad zero members in current Horus ranking order
1 Karine Fortescue – Fortescue
2 Aline Paget - Paget-A
3 Solene Raoult – Raoult
4 Lola Paget - Paget-L
5 Charlene Brasseur – Brasseur
6 Luc Girard – Girard
7 Mathis Niel - Niel
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Luc Girard was a squad member of the elite Horus squad zero. According to Karine Fortescue, she had handpicked him from the thousands of applicants to Fortescue Academy M1 to be in her squad.
His brother was impressed, it was the first time that Luc could remember his brother giving him praise that was not backhanded. He was initially quite happy to be in Fortescue's squad, but expectations did not always meet reality. Instead of being in an elite of the Academy and enjoy his status. He had to fight and work incredibly hard to justify his position in the squad with constant threats of demotion.
Some of his squadmates were so talented they did not have to work anywhere near as hard as him. Raoult for one and Paget-A for another. They just cruised through the educational material and the highly competitive activities such as the Gauntlet or the obstacle course. The only advantage he had gained by joining Horus squad zero was the advanced heavy exos they received. These gave a cadet a significant advantage in the Gauntlet and the Arena.
But for all Horus' direct and unapologetic backing from Fortescue, somehow Thoth had come up with exos which creamed theirs in the Gauntlet. And judging from the anxiety running through the squad, today's match, which was a joke at first, was being taken extremely seriously. A poor performance would easily mean a demotion to squad one or worse.
It was not often squad members were demoted, but Karine Fortescue held so much power, she could do whatever she wished. That is what he had gathered from the little he had seen and from what the Pagets or Fortescue openly discussed. The only cadets in squad zero who seemed safe were the Pagets and Raoult. Everyone else was under severe pressure to perform.
Girard was made to feel a failure for not making it into the top ten ranking in the Academy.
His brother had never ranked in the top twenty, and he was athletic, smart and talented. Luc had ranked nineteen in the first round, better than his brother had ever achieved. Yet he felt like he failed. His expectations of having a lot of fun at the Academy were dashed against the rocks of reality.
Girard hefted his flamer, he had not reached the infamous Daedalus in time, and now all the action was behind him. He sprinted as fast as he could towards Paget-A's position. From the comms, she was in a battle with a melee, and as he closed the last corner, he saw the message. She had killed Barran. Paget-A was amazing, and normally he would be ecstatic to be in her squad. She had taken down the almost equally infamous Barran who was always in the top three ranked on the obstacle course.
Paget-A nodded towards him, ”drop your flamer and grab Brasseur's assault. It's better we work in tandem, and they have no melee left.”
As Girard grabbed the weapon and ammo Paget-A spoke with Fortescue over comms formulating a plan. It seemed they had only Vannier and Mace to go. A sniper and a second launcher.
”Raoult is trying to catch Mace, but she is too quick,” Paget-A said.
Girard nodded.
She led him to a building to the east, and they climbed using the ledges and windows, conserving their jumpjets unless completely necessary.
Paget-A shared a map with Girard, she highlighted the area Mace was in and where Vannier was last seen.
”We need to get eyes on either. Once they are down to one cadet it will be easy,” Paget-A said. She was quite beat up, one more hit and she would be toast. To his knowledge, there was no way to repair in the Arena. Some mechs had shields which would replenish, but that was about it.
Raoult continued to ping her own position, so they knew where she was. Fortescue was off to the south-west and Vannier apparently north-west. While Mace and Raoult were directly west. They had strategic superiority and while the other cadets were formidable, so were Horus.
Raoult: Shhheet. I lost her again.
Raoult had taken damage from Mace's frag grenades, but before she could close in on Mace, she would use smoke or her superior speed and agility to get away.
Girard: there
He said over comms.
Fortescue: Ping it, don't just say it.
He already had while she was speaking. He had seen Mace momentarily running north between two buildings. She used a grapple to pull herself halfway up a building before Jumpjetting forward, out of his sight, as she fell. She was amazingly fast. He didn't know an exo could move that fast. It wasn't just the increased speed you would get from a mesh exo, it was the use of the grapple and jumpjets in combination with this speed. She looked like she flew.
He was not surprised Raoult could not catch her.
”Let's move,” Paget-A said standing. But before she took a step, he heard a loud bang as a railgun round hit supersonic speed. Before Paget took another step or could dive, she fell to the ground. She was taken out by Vannier, and he had no idea where Vannier was.
There was no need to inform his squad that Paget-A was down, or to say Vannier did it. They all knew from the system message which flashed momentarily on their HUD. It was now two versus three. Their significant advantage had been cut dramatically with one kill. Especially since Raoult, with all her physical prowess, was unable to catch the fast-moving Thoth exos.
Girard liked Raoult, she wasn't superior like Lola or Karine, despite her natural abilities. In her current situation he felt for her, she was ineffective, her loadout which was supreme against normal squads was useless against Thoth zero. How frustrating it must be to be kited by a launcher. She couldn't even deflect rounds with her large swordlance.
He saw Mace again, but she was gone before he could fire, she was too quick running laterally across his vision. He would need to aim up a street and wait for her to pass in that area. He had just spied her within his field of vision, and she was gone before he could aim. He pinged her location first this time with an indicator showing south.
Girard: Mace heading south.
Raoult: Thanks. Head here.
Raoult pinged a location on the map, she wanted him to get closer to where Mace was roaming. To get into the thick of it. He slid down the back of the building, without breaking cover. He didn't want a repeat of Paget-A although he could take a few hits from a Railgun as he only had minor damage from Daedo's grenades.
Girard never imagined that hit and run tactics with launchers and these fast exos would be so effective. He was impressed, and there surely would be squads copying this tactic in the future. All they needed to do is to modify their exos with super speed and have exceptional spatial awareness akin to the rank one and rank three cadets in M1. Easy peasy.
He chuckled, there were always leaders in strategy and followers. And the followers wondered why copying strategies didn't make them number one. Girard was smart enough to know it was about strategy and skill. When either was excluded, there was no chance of becoming number one.