66 M1 - Term: 2, Round: 1 (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: 2, Round: 1
Daedalus Operating Capital: 130,000 bitcreds
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Amelia Mace was thinking about the viscosity of molecules while practising yoga.
She woke up in the middle of the night, on more than one occasion, with an idea and quickly told her AI before going to back sleep.
Her mind wandered when running the obstacle course to synthetic compounds. How to make them smaller. What could be done to decrease friction?
When she had free time, she put her ideas into models to simulate the outcomes. Squad zero had a potential recruit who was both talented and experienced with chemical engineering. Yet Mace was consumed with the challenge Daedo had given her. He had asked Jensen for an improvement with the hydraulic fluid they were using in the exos with the deadline being the end of the trial.
This task was also assigned to her with the same Deadline. She took it as a challenge. It was a competition.
When Daedo beat her on the Gauntlet, it didn't invoke the same emotional response. It was because she viewed Daedo as an ally, they were on the same team. If he was number one and she was number two it didn't really make a difference to her. They held the top two spots. Certainly, if the number one spot was held by another squad, her attitude would have been dramatically different.
Mace viewed Jensen as an outsider. Until he committed to Daedalus, and the squad, he would remain as a competitor.
She was lost in deep thought when Vannier tapped her, ”Sorry. Dinner is in three minutes.” Vanner was always mindful of disturbing her fellow cadets when they were studying, but she also ensured they didn't miss group activities. Like meals. Meals were good.
It was 1715 on the first Wednesday of the term, merely three days in and it seemed like a month to Mace. She worked and played hard on the break, and although she put in long hours at the workshop, she still felt invigorated when she returned for a new round of the Gauntlet and Obstacle course. Her time spent with Daedo, Cisse, and Ikaros felt like a vacation, and the Munich trip was a blast.
The only stressful part of the break was when her parents, not only spent time with her but with the squad as well. Her mother especially was a worry. She asked questions, which Mace found not only embarrassing, but surprising. She had never had a crush in her life, and while she liked and respected Daedo, he was a year younger, but just a good friend and ally.
In her mind, it definitely wasn't a crush. When her mother hinted at it, she just wanted to scream at them to leave immediately before her mother could spread her insane theories, embarrass her and doom her reputation beyond repair.
”You working on chem?” Vannier asked.
Mace nodded.
Vannier smiled, Mace was a woman of few words. When a nod would suffice, that's all she gave. Vannier continued to query her as they walked to the cafeteria, ”Are you enjoying it?”
Mace thought about the question. She had never considered if she enjoyed chem eng or not. After a full minute of contemplation, she replied, ”You know what; I actually do like it.”
Vannier wasn't surprised, ”You like anything that's math heavy and logical. It's no surprise that you liked it once you got into it.”
”Don't tell Daedo,” Mace said urgently.
Vannier considered Mace for a moment, ”You don't want your like of the subject to influence the decision over Jensen? He has to want to stay as well.”
”He'd be an idiot not too,” Mace replied without giving reasons. Vannier would know the reasons.
”What we have, may not be obvious, in just five days,” Vannier played devil's advocate.
”Just don't say anything, okay,” Mace pleaded.
Vannier stopped Mace for a moment, they were about to enter earshot of the table. ”Mace, I love you, but,” she paused and put her hand on both of Mace's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. ”I am not going to make a promise to do something that is not in the best interest of the squad.” Vannier let go and began to walk towards the table she looked back at Mace smiled and said, ”And I never make a promise I intend to break.”
Mace stewed, suddenly angry. Then she was confused about why she was angry. She schooled her expression. Vannier would do what she thought was right, and she was never malicious. Mace decided to just do her own thing and what would happen would happen. There was no point worrying about it. Both Daedo and Vannier were responsible and smart, they wouldn't put personal feelings ahead of what was the right choice.
She considered dropping the chem eng project. The one Daedo asked her to do. She could begin reading up on metallurgy now as it was still related to chem eng. Her expression may have been schooled, but her mind was running a million miles an hour. She shook her head to free it of doubt. Mace was not a wishy-washy person to change direction on a whim. She would see this project through. A decision would be made on Friday, and she would go in one direction or another based on that decision.
Vannier leaned over and whispered softly, ”I am getting the hang of reading you.”
Mace looked at her with her cool, emotionless expression. But her eyes told the truth, 'You may be able to read a tiger, but that doesn't stop it from ripping you to shreds.' Or some similar analogy that had the same outcome.
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As the squad enjoyed their communal meal, thankfully free of intrusions from outsiders, a message came in from Cillian Marais. It wasn't an event that was considered an intrusion because it wasn't some imbecile from Osiris squad twenty with some baseless accusation about cheating or some invented wrongdoing that squad zero had committed.
[Cillian Marais, Marais Industries CTO]
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*To: Daedalus; Barran, Daedo, Vannier, Mace, Picard, and Axelzero.*
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It was a vid recording sent to all the current squad members that Barran had included in his correspondence last week. Cillian Marais was working on a vehicle, walking around the workshop while a drone, presumably, followed him and recorded what he had to say.
”Daedalus, or should I say squad zero?” Cillian asked a question as an introduction. He shook his head, ”Doesn't matter. Anyway, I got your message Barran. Thanks. I am sorry I didn't get back to you last week, we've been busy,” and then a drone followed Cillian's arm as he pointed, ”Our model four is due for final EUDF testing tomorrow morning and its all rush-rush around here.”
The model four was a massive VTOL carrier. The cadets could see four external mech bays on the side, which probably meant there were another four on the other side. The carrier had enough jets on the underside and rear to carry two hundred tonnes of mechs and gear. It was enormous and looked built solidly enough to withstand a few missile blasts.
”It was brought forward, so I couldn't afford the time to come and see you last week. But after tomorrow morning the crunch will be over. I am sending this message now because Stanley also contacted me about you,” suddenly Cillian looked across at a technician with a handheld torch and yelled, ”Don't pussyfoot around and weld it on properly Pierre, it's a flying tank for godsakes.”
”Sorry,” Cillian said back to the drone sheepishly, ”We treat these machines with kid gloves so much the team tends to forget they can take a wallop when required.”
”Okay, back to business. I can come out tomorrow night at 1800, Stanley said he could make that time as well. I am sorry if this interferes with your squad activities, but I have to head to North America and then China with the demo model fours. I will be away for at least a week. After you get this just let me know whether to come to Nanterre this week or after I get back and we will make other arrangements.”
”Oh,” Cillian said and made a circle with his finger pointing up and then pointed to the model four carrier. The drone then slowly panned around the carrier showing its size, and much of the workshop surrounds. It made their workshop look tiny in comparison. There were a dozen of the demonstration model fours all looking finished and another dozen in the middle stages of assembly. Each one was twelve meters tall and approximately fifty meters long. They were built that solidly the six undercarriage jets doubled as landing gear. There were another two jets on the rear and another on each of the wings.
The cadets could not tell what the propulsion method was, but it had to be fusion drives. Nothing else would be that size and have enough power to lift a two hundred tonne carrier.
Cillian smiled and waved. The vid winked out.
”Now that was amazing,” Barran said in awe.
Daedo had to agree, ”Did you see the size of the plant? The bridge cranes alone were beyond anything I have seen. They must be rated over five hundred tonnes.”
”Only you would get excited over a bridge crane,” Barran replied, ”I was looking at the carriers.”
”No that's not correct,” Vannier interjected, ”I think Ikaros would get excited over the bridge cranes as well.”
Everyone laughed at the thought of Ikaros getting excited over the Marais machinery.
”What are we going to do?” Picard asked.
Daedo thought about the offer, 1800 was not a good time, they could possibly miss arena practice which was at 2015. The Gauntlet was at 2230, so it was safe and the most important session.
”Let's agree. We can make this work, we just have to be back by 2230 for the Gauntlet,” Daedo said.