84 M1: Term: 2, Round: 3 (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: 3
Daedalus Operating Capital: 160,000 bitcreds
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Old Dawg faced off against Dead Beat.
Axelzero faced off against Mister Kang.
Although both mechs possessed similar tech, Dead Beat and its pilot Mister Kang, had been in dozens of pro league matches.
There was another reason Daedo picked Axelzero, in hand to hand combat she was the weakest in the squad excluding their newest member. Dead Beat and Old Dawg were now equal in terms of armour and power delivery. Power delivery directly related to strength and speed with the only limitation being the actuators and structure itself.
And that was where Dead Beat had an advantage, although his arms were short for the pro league, they were longer than Old Dawgs. His chassis was only two years old and was superior to Old Dawgs in terms of design and material provided by Kang.
Daedo knew he could improve on Dead Beat's design, but that would come in the future when he thought it was ready, for now, the Daedalus' mascot mech, Old Dawg, was it.
The squad, Ikaros and Cisse, were all cheering for Old Dawg, with the exception of Kang who cheered for her Father out of loyalty. Dead Beat was to her what Old Dawg was to the rest of the squad. It was her first mech as much as it was her Fathers.
The spectators were behind a protective transparent polymer which itself was protected by an alloy cage thirteen metres off the ground.
In the future, the floor of the range could host numerous training and testing equipment which was slowly being added to the store beneath. For a mech melee duel, the floor was clear. Daedo hoped the soundproofing would be enough to reduce most of the noise, but the reverberations from a mech falling were sure to be felt by their neighbours in the industrial estate.
Axelzero put one foot behind herself taking a traditional side-on combat stance while she waited for the confident Mister Kang. Daedo was certain that So-Ra informed her Father regarding Axelzero's ranking within the squad which emboldened him further. It was his hope Mister Kang would learn a valuable lesson today.
Dead Beat moved forward at speed; reaching out with a jab at Old Dawg's torso. The speed of the retrofitted mech was much improved. The jab shot towards his opponent. But Old Dawg brought his left arm swinging down pushing the blow aside before taking a step towards Dead Beat and landing a right hook into his shoulder.
It was a textbook block and counter performed by Axelzero.
Dead Beat rocked back, with one foot moving backwards to regain balance as he leaned precariously. Old Dawg had not stopped moving, he took another smaller step before jabbing Dead Beat, at the same height, but on the other side of his torso. It was a strategy to keep him off balance. Old Dawg landed the blow knocking Dead Beat back with the power delivered by the innovative hydraulic system.
The mechs were well armoured, they had a superior power delivery system, but if the pilot did not keep the mech balanced, it would fall on its arse just as Mister Kang did with Dead Beat.
Axelzero took two steps back with Old Dawg and waited for Dead Beat to get back up. She took up a defensive posture again except this time switching sides.
”She is doing great,” Picard stated.
”Yeah, maybe we should tell her to go easy on him?” Vannier asked.
”Don't you dare!” Kang growled.
”I agree with Kang, the Dead Beat pilot needs to learn a lesson,” Daedo said and received a glare from Kang.
Dead Beat got up, but this time instead of launching himself at Old Dawg he inched forward. Just before he got into range; Old Dawg jumped up and brought a vicious blow arcing downwards on top of Dead Beat.
Dead Beat tried to step back but was too slow, while the weight of the blow pushed him down, but his superb armouring held firm. After stabilising balance the two mechs were very close, torso to torso and Old Dawg reacted first. Bringing up his knee while Dead Beat threw a hook towards Old Dawg's right side.
Both blows landed with one mech rocking back on his heels and Old Dawg being knocked to its side. Old Dawg used the momentum and twisted while Dead Beat took two quick steps back this time, learning from the last encounter.
Old Dawg finished his turn and lifted his foot to use the momentum to kick Dead Beat.
”Oh no,” Daedo said.
It was quickly apparent the mech was not capable of this range of movement, and it lost balance with a leg joint screeching in protest. Even with the soundproofing, the spectators covered their ears to try and block out the high pitched shriek.
Old Dawg went down to his hands and knees. Dead Beat had regained his balance and waited patiently, returning the favour from minutes earlier.
Old Dawg slowly got up and stood, his leg joint looked bent out of shape, but he was able to stand and move.
”He has to fight like an Old Dawg,” Barran chuckled.
”Is he ok?” Vannier asked concerned.
Daedo checked the telemetry data and nodded. The hydraulics were still almost full capacity, and the leg actuator was still reading green on all its elements.
”I think the structure is bent out of shape,” Ikaros stated.
”That doesn't sound good,” Barran said.
Ikaros shrugged. He didn't seem worried.
Old Dawg waited for Dead Beat to attack and as soon as he jabbed, Old Dawg knocked his fist away and returned with a blow of his own. He then stepped back and waited for Dead Beat to repeat the action, Axelzero was now fighting conservatively.
Barran yawned.
”Yeah, this is boring but its smart fighting,” Picard stated what everyone was thinking after Old Dawg blocked and punched Dead Beat half a dozen times.
Dead Beat slowly got frustrated and began to push harder with riskier attacks. He feinted with a jab and followed up with a powerful hook trying to catch Old Dawg off guard.
Axelzero must have seen through the move; Old Dawg ignored the feint and instead of blocking the hook he grabbed it and pulled the same direction that the blow was coming.
This time Dead Beat rocked forward and down as Old Dawg moved to the side allowing his opponent to land unceremoniously on the ground.
Old Dawg then put his foot on Dead Beat's back, got his balance before bringing his full fifteen tonnes of weight onto Dead Beat. Dead Beat was strong, but he couldn't get up.
”What would happen if this was a tournament?” Picard asked Kang.
”You'd be booed out of the arena,” Kang replied with a grin.
Daedo called the bout. It had run to a standstill, and he wanted to inspect Old Dawg properly before starting a new match.
*Daedo: Mister Kang. Old Dawg is damaged would you like to run some tests while we have a look at him?*
*Mister Kang: Yes young son. I am very impressed with the power and speed improvement. Do you have a way to test punch power?*
*Daedo: we have robots and a program for this, it will take ten minutes to set up.*
Pro League mechs did not give away their data on punching power, however, there was some information on retired models. A human's unassisted strike power had a wide range, anywhere from 100 to 1000N. In an exo, the squad was striking up to 15kN and Daedo suspected a mech could reach ten times this number due to the amount of power delivered to the actuator and its rating.
Once the massive constructofoam block and test sensors were in place, they were ready for the strike test. The block would move, and its speed over the first three metre's of movement was all they needed to measure. The friction and opposing force were known, the acceleration was a factor of the speed because it was stationary and the weight of the constructofoam block was known. Daedo had the mass, and opposing force increased twenty-fold from the exo test to stop it from flying too far.
*Picard: ready Mister Kang.*
Picard was running the tests with Kang and her Father as Daedo was inspecting Old Dawg with Axelzero.
Dead Beat stood in front of the block and jabbed. The reading came through 88kN. It was six times Barran's best strike in an exo. Dead Beat then swung a hook at the block, it read a much better number; 114kN.