Daedalus 35 M1 - Term: 1, Round: 2

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 Bra.s.seur – Bra.s.seur

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 compet.i.tive 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 Bra.s.seur's a.s.sault. 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 pa.s.s 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.

As he ran towards Raoult's pinged location, another loud boom sounded from a Railgun. Although the rounds were AR, the AR adjudicator simulated the sound in the Arena. Almost the same instant as the boom, he was. .h.i.t on the shoulder by a railgun round. The damage was as expected and his right arm lost most of its effectiveness. Girard estimated he could only take two or three more of those hits depending on their location.

He pinged his speculation of Vannier's location. He based it on his. .h.i.t location and a little from the sound. But mostly from the terrain, and line of sight trajectory that would have allowed a long-range hit on him.

Girard: sustained a hit from Vannier. She is in this sight line.

Fortescue: good work. Your focus on Mace, I will take care of Vannier.

Fortescue had ended the light exos of Thoth with one hit. The damage from her PPC was OP. The PPC had weaknesses, but not ones Thoth had exploited yet. One of the main weaknesses were the number of shots Fortescue's exo could power. She could not use jumpjets if she wanted her full quant.i.ty of ion bolts. It took her an entire minute to generate the power for one bolt, and she could only store enough energy for three. And that was with her enhanced Heavy, it had the best storage and reactor available in the Fortescue Group.

Girard saw Mace again, she was skipping backwards and firing. He ducked behind cover. Then he saw Raoult chasing her up the street and realised that Mace was not firing at him but Raoult as she manically tried to dodge grenades.

He began to fire upon Mace. It was difficult because she was jumping up and down while moving backwards. She must have been firing her jumpjets for a second or less, she also did not move in a straight line or with regularity.

Girard managed to get a few rounds on target but missed with eighty percent of his bursts. He was not looking forward to the interrogation when they a.s.sessed his accuracy during this match.

On moment Mace was retreating, the next she dropped a smoke grenade at her own feet. He expected she decided to escape as it was two versus one and she did not want Raoult to catch her. Raoult sprinted into the smoke heading north. She was using her jumpjets to give herself extra speed. She could not use them for long, but if she could close to last distance to Mace, it would be over.

To Girard's surprise, Mace exited the smoke heading towards him. She had fooled Raoult who was headed in the wrong direction. He had to make a split second decision to either alert the team or fire upon Mace. The safe bet would be to signal and run and escape AR death. His rifle was good when used in a combination, but by itself its damage was average. But Mace was in a light exo, and he was in a Heavy.

Girard moved into the street while firing at Mace. If he was able to turn her back, Raoult would be ecstatic if she caught Mace in a pincer. He concentrated on bursts at her midsection, and he was landing closer to fifty percent despite her dodging. He took a moment to ping the map for the others.

Two grenades had splashed him with flack. He did not expect to last much longer, but he only had to last longer than Mace. There was little point in trying to dodge, his exo was too slow. Girard took the chance of a headshot in an attempt to win, her midsection was difficult to hit with all her twisting, jumping, dodging, sliding and strafing. Her head was almost impossible. Then she shot him with her grapple.

"What the…" Girard yelled in surprise. "She f.u.c.king shot me with her grapple," he then said under his breath to no one but himself. She pulled herself to him, as he was heavier just as an ion bolt landed in the spot she had just vacated.

The b.u.t.t of her launcher hit him in the face, it was not a programmed melee weapon, but it stunned him in its audacity and surprise on top of the physical impact.

Before he could get another burst off, he was. .h.i.t by a railgun round, and the last thing he saw before his hud went black was Raoult running towards him straight into a frag grenade blast.

Two system messages scrolled up his hud as he lay on the ground.

Vannier (railgun) Girard

Mace (launcher) Raoult.

Horus Squad Zero had gone from four versus two to one versus two. A total disaster.

As Girard lay in situ, his only vision was of the system messages until the match was over. While most stimuli were closed to him, he thought about the match and reran his role in it through his head. He felt his performance was good. However, he doubted he would receive the same a.s.sessment from his squad leader.

Karine Fortescue could not believe the turn of events. They had four, and of those four, three of their best, versus two Thoth. The Thoth cadets were elite, both holding top ten rankings, but that did not explain the reversal in fortune.

'How had this happened?' she thought. Raoult's loadout was useless against Mace, that was a ma.s.sive mistake on the squad leaders part. Aline sustained too much damage against Baran. Thoth's pincer ambush was well executed, extremely well timed which was surprising based on their Arena vids. She had never seen such coordination in their bouts against Shu.

Her trump card, the PPC, was designed to blunt and destroy the expected ambush. She reviewed the kills. Her cover was far to the south of Mace, and she had a few seconds to a.s.sess before trying to pick off the light launcher. Mace would have to come to her, and the last thing Fortescue would do was move.

Fortescue would force Mace to search for her while Vannier stayed hidden. If she could take out Mace, then the battle against Vannier would be based on their marksmanship skills and strategy. Her weapon was far superior to Vannier and suited to a one on one fight. Its main weakness is if she was swamped or charged by a melee.

Vannier would have to shoot her multiple times where she only needed one direct hit versus the amiable girl.

There was something odd with the system messages. The first kill was attributed to Daedo against her squad member, the second was another Thoth, Gaumont, who took down Niel. Where was Daedo's death?

She had two kills. Gaumont and Picard. She should have three. A system message only appeared for moments when someone died in the AR arena. Although you could bring up the log during the fight, it had been too hectic to do so until now.

And the ambush had hit the moment she had thought she had killed Daedo. They were too busy fighting to notice there was no kill message.

'How friggin stupid!' Fortescue thought. She would be the laughing stock if anyone found out they thought they had killed Daedo when they hadn't. The system told you! It was an unforgivable blunder.

He must have been watching calling the shots the entire time. 'f.u.c.k,' she thought, entirely frustrated with her squad's pathetic performance.

There was no point in crying over it. She hefted her PPC she had charge for a single shot and in less than a minute she would have a second. She had no one to scream at over the comms. She was alone versus three.

Fortescue was not about to lay down and admit defeat, no matter how bleak the situation. If she could win from here, it will signal she was ready to take the Fortescue Academy out of Tier 3 and into Tier 2.

It was her responsibility to get their Academy out of Tier 2. And in her wildest dreams into Tier 1. She was given all the resources and power available in order to achieve this. If she asked for something, it was provided. She had basically handpicked her squad. Requisitioned equipment. She was building a team to win M level. If she could not beat an upstart Thoth squad, it meant she had no chance versus KAIST or ETH Zurich. Let alone Seoul Military Academy.

Fortescue calculated Mace's approach and then adjusted based on the cadets own predictions. It was tempting to move into the far north-west corner to narrow the field of vision she needed to cover, but moving had its own risks. At the moment they would be able to calculate her location to an accuracy of five buildings, given their expertise. Usually, she would expect an opponent would have a much larger area. But Thoth had proved nothing if not competency in tactical calculations.

She listened intently for a lobbed grenade. Fearing one would come from nowhere and arc over her cover into her position. Her mind kept searching for the telltale sounds a launcher made, the pop as a grenade left its chute.

Fortescue immediately noticed the smoke in the streets surrounding the buildings to her north. Thoth had used a couple of smoke grenades to cover their movements. At least she knew they would be in that area. If they topped a building to search for her, she would see them.

"Pop," she heard the launcher and from out of the smoke came a frag grenade in her direction.

'How?' she wondered. They had guessed her location with pinpoint accuracy. She could take a few frag grenades before her advanced heavy succ.u.mbed. But it was more important for her to remain hidden than to take a couple of hits to random searching shots.

She wished for the grenade munitions to run out. Daedo and Mace had used thirty frags and at least seventeen smokes between them. If they carried thirty kilos of munitions, they would probably have thirty grenades each. It was wishful thinking, they would easily have enough for one more kill.

Fortescue remained still as the grenade landed to her right. She just took the damage. She wasn't even going to let a grenade exploding to make her give up her position. It was possible they weren't certain, and no movement after a grenade explosion would give them pause. Perhaps they would start to search other buildings in the vicinity.

Fortescue focused on the smoke ceiling. If any cadet showed a helmet above this line, she would take it out. She contemplated radar. It would give her position away, something she was determined to disguise. But, maybe it was her only chance. If she got a radar ping and fired immediately, the PPC could take one out. In another twenty seconds, she would have a second charge.

She activated her Radar, waiting for the ping. Not unexpectedly she got two within the smoke.

She fired immediately at the easier target. She heard two pops from their grenade launchers.

Two system messages appeared.

Fortescue (PPC) Mace.

Daedo (Launcher) Fortescue.

The final moments of the feed showed over three thousand viewers. Given that there were only seven thousand six hundred and fifty cadets in the Academy it was a ma.s.sive number. Perhaps the numbers were bolstered by Alumni and others in Fortescue with clearance to the Academy's stream.

Chatter ensued amongst audience cliques for the entire match. Strategy, skill and equipment a.n.a.lysis. One thing was apparent, House Thoth were no longer easy beats.