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

Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142

House Thoth, Squad Zero

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

Term: 1, Round: 1

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Vannier and Axelzero were bombarded with messages shortly after the rankings updated. A few of which they answered. The messages came from previously close friends, who were suddenly no longer friendly but now all of a sudden friendly again. Mostly they ignored the incoming torrent of questions and messages. Daedo and Picard who were outsiders were untouched to the direct contact barrage.

Mace did not go out of her way to socialise before attending the academy and like Picard received few messages.

”Are you being bombarded with messages all of a sudden too?” Axelzero asked Barran.

”I have mine on auto-reply. Get fooked,” he answered, ”I stopped keeping track after the first couple.” He was still sore from dropping drastically in his squad ranking although his overall did not change by much. A mere four places out of seventeen.

The live stream of their practice session with Shu was showing thousands of viewers, where it would normally be between ten to twenty. The squad spoke over comms during the practice.

Barran: oh boy, we sure are popular now. Do you see the viewer count?

Daedo: this is not a good thing. Is there any way we can opt out of streaming?

Axelzero: I am afraid it is part of the learning process of the Academy, everything is streamed and recorded for current and future cadets to learn from.

Vannier: it is limited to Fortescue Academy, they do not want information on tactics and capability leaking outside into the inter Academy league.

Daedo: so we can't even make credits off a stream?

Barran: who makes creds off a stream?

Axelzero: he does. How do you think he afforded the workshop.

Daedo: we need to focus on the assigned drills. We need the telemetry data on the new exo to further improve it.

Barran: so I am free to stuff around since I do not have a new exo?

Daedo: all data is used, but we have enough information on you using the minigun now. I would be interested to see how it changes if you change your loadout. Can you swap to melee weapons or a one-handed gun and launcher?

Barran: yeah, I love the minigun. It's so good. But I can try different loadouts in matches that do not matter. Any requests?

Daedo: a melee range loadout and a short-range loadout. The minigun is already close to short range, but I would like to see how you handle a lower rate of fire, higher damage cannon or shotgun.

Barran: cestus and shotty? I can do that.

Daedo: perfect, once you have increased mobility and strength that combination will increase in effectiveness markedly.

Barran: you mean kick more ass. Speak Daedo properly.

Axelzero: same could be said for you Barran.

Although they did not take winning or losing the match seriously, squad zero beat Shu over and over with their new exos. The difference in mobility had caused a gap in performance where they were almost equal while performing drills during the previous week. It was mostly Picard and Vannier taking the enemy down from range, whilst never being pinned down themselves. The enemy simply could not catch them.

Daedo: during the next practice I want everyone in a light exo to get into melee range combat and then escape. Everyone needs to use a cestus and a grappler in your offhand. You are to punch the enemy once and then escape to an out of range or out of the line of sight position. Then repeat.

Picard: oh boy, this will confuse and annoy Thoth squad one.

Barran: like we care.

Daedo was testing the agility of the exo, forcing his squadmates to get into situations where they would try and dodge or avoid fire. The telemetry data would inform him where weaknesses in the design resided. Whether it was the knees, the torso or waist, or flexibility in any parts. It would also push his squadmates to learn to use the grappler inventively.

Thoth squad zero finished their practice with Shu squad zero and then Thoth squad one, reaping telemetry data and joy in their new exos. They literally ran rings around the standard issue. Xavier from Thoth squad one congratulated them when they exited the arena.

”This exo,” he said, ”it is really impressive. Hats off to you guys.” He began to walk away but then turned back.

”I didn't see you in the mech bay during the weekend. Where did you put this all together?” Xavier asked.

”Confidential information, sorry,” Barran said deadpan and waved him to move along.

Xavier looked disappointed at first before changing his countenance and smiling, ”I love mysteries, I guess I will just have to find out. Oh by the way what do you guys think of The Spiral?”

Daedo: The Spiral?

Axelzero: you do live under a rock don't you. It is a massive PPP with the four governments and the top corporations. Plans were announced today.

Daedo: whats a PPP?

Axelzero: It's a public-private partnership. Its when the government works with companies on big infrastructure projects.

Daedo: ah. I don't know much about business.

Vannier: from the guy who made over twenty k bitcreds by the age of twelve.

As Vannier laughed over the comms, Barran answered Xavier.

”Exciting isn't it, I can't wait until its completed so I can visit and fly my awesome ship out of here,” Barran said enthusiastically.

”You have a ship?” Xavier asked dumbfounded.

”No, but I will by the time it's done in five years! That's a long time to save for one dontcha think?” Barran asked.

Daedo looked up the details of The Spiral.

Daedo: Myrmidon look at this.

The Spiral was not just a super space station. It possessed an elevator from Earth. Daedo was intrigued because speculation was that an Elevator would extend from the equator, but the plans showed it was at the North Pole. Not the magnetic north pole, the true north pole. There must be a very good reason for this, it had to reach higher in the atmosphere which would come at a greater cost and a more difficult engineering proposition.

The spiral itself was named because of its shape. Unlike many space stations which formed rings, this one was a centric spiral. The large centre was split between the four governments of the security council. The EU, Chinese Asia, NA and Russia. These four governments ruled the world and would rule space as well it seemed. The spiral arms themselves were backed by blocks of companies with three mega-companies leading the way with a spiral arm each. It was no surprise DaVinci, Svarski and Huawei each had a large stake in the space station.

And it's purpose?

The stated purpose was progress and security. No mention of exploration of space. The companies would explore space for the sole purpose of finding much-needed minerals with the possibility of finding new exotic materials. Stage two of the massive undertaking would see the establishment of similar bases on Mars and the Moon.

Up until now, space mining was expensive, and the costs outweighed the benefits. But according to the marketing of The Spiral, the elevator and the advancement of robots would change all this. Space would provide all the materials needed to expand with excess coming back to Earth. It had probably taken years to get all the major participants to agree on the cost and ownership of The Spiral.

The Spiral itself was funded by hundreds of shareholders, governments amongst them and it would be a company itself. With costs and profits flowing to and from its shareholders based on their equity.

Even this must have been extremely political, with each of the four main governments owning an equal share of ten percent exactly. Minor governments had purchased shares as well as every wealthy company Daedo had ever heard of and then some.

The big three had an eight percent share each, and even Fortescue had a percent. The list of companies with shareholdings below one percent was vast. But even a small stake in this venture came at a large cost, which was not guaranteed to be returned. The entire project was estimated to be over twenty billion bitcreds when all the stages were included. Daedo could not even imagine this amount of money, and he wondered why it was so costly, surely if they used robots and mined for the minerals to build stages two and three they should not be so costly. Something did not add up.

The more he thought about it, it must be the way adults did accounting. He could purchase a cold fusion reactor for one thousand bitcreds, but if Cisse built one the cost of the materials was under a hundred bitcreds. Yes, they needed a workshop with expensive machinery, foundries, injection moulding and fabricators to achieve this. Perhaps the adults just valued the end result at its retail value and not its cost to build.

Daedo shook his head, he did not have time to concern himself with such things. Life was complicated and busy enough already.

”It is massive,” Mace said to Daedo breaking his reverie. She pulled up a render taking up most of their common area.

They had walked back after their second match, leaving the others to chat with Xavier. This was the time that Daedo had allocated to catch up study or to assist his squadmates with their work.