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Stanley Martin strode down the corridor, his pet.i.tion to speak with the Lieutenant General (LG) from strategic command on matters concerning exo procurement had been actioned.
After performing the customary salute and permissions for entry, Stanley stood in front of the LG and his aide.
"Martin," the LG greeted him with an informal tone.
"Sir," Martin replied rigidly.
"I read that you are stepping out of your area of expertise Colonel," the LG stated. "Can you explain this pet.i.tion?"
"Sir, I attend Academy tournaments regularly as part of my recruitment and training duties, and I have witnessed and innovative design we should look into," Martin replied.
"Very well, send it off to procurement. We will follow the normal procedures Martin, I do not want headaches with admin," the LG responded.
"Sir, with all due respect sir," Martin pushed.
"Colonel, whenever an officer says with all due respect what they actually mean is; listen LG you are wrong listen to me," the LG replied, "but Colonel. I am not wrong. Admin won"t be a pain in your a.s.s, but mine. So..procurement."
Stanley Martin saluted, "Very well sir. Any advice?"
The LG leaned forward, "Yes Martin," and after a brief pause he added in a very serious tone, "be good to your Mother."
Stanley sighed inwardly and left the LG. He proceeded to write up a recommendation for procurement to test and investigate the Daedalus exo. Or to be more precise as the requisition form cla.s.sified the equipment: Human Form Powered Exoskeletal Armour.
He was stationed southwest of Paris, the large EU Military installation in the Loire Valley. It was the second largest base in Europe, with the main administration located in Brussels and the largest base in Krakow. The fast response teams out of the Loire Valley could be in Berlin in thirty minutes and London in twenty. Paris was mere minutes away.
As a tactician what worried Stanley was not the speed of response, but the scope. In his mind, the EUDF needed to upscale in sheer numbers. And exos were key to this. But Stanley was a mere Colonel, in the scheme of things he had five layers of leadership and bureaucracy above him before the Governmental level.
What Stanley"s role did accommodate was discretion on how he spent the majority of his time. He was a.s.sessed on his trainee units meeting key performance criteria before becoming part of the EUDF main structure. His team were experienced and after many years underneath him needed little guidance with regular reviews to maintain quality.
Part of the problem were the EUDF systems weren"t keeping pace with technology. This was the one aspect of the private military that was a source of envy. They could be much more flexible and adaptable by nature. There were exceptions, some of them were rigid, but that was because of their leadership. The good ones were not rigid in the least.
Stanley stopped stewing about his frustrations. He would go and visit the cause of his unease. He had learned from the cadets they had a company called Daedalus and a workshop in Nanterre. A place he could visit them outside of the Academy with its restrictions on recruitment and access.
*Martin: I"d like to take you up on your invitation.*
Daedo had left an open invitation to Stanley to see their workshop. Because of his career, he was less restricted than Cillian in this matter. The cadets were polite, they did not expect he would have time to visit.
Within minutes a reply came.
*Daedo: sure. When?*
*Martin: today? I have some forms to complete but can be there in two hours.*
It was only thirty minutes from the base to Nanterre, but Stanley wanted to allow enough time to complete the procurement request and for the cadets.
*Daedo: make it three. We have a run at 1600 which will take an hour.*
*Martin: I can come on the run, I haven"t done mine today.*
*Daedo: can you keep up?*
*Martin: you"ve got to be joking.*
*Daedo: yes. Wasn"t it obvious?*
Stanley laughed to himself, the cadet was treating him like an equal. Which was good, however unusual. The last thing he was expecting was a barb from a cadet one third his age and his junior by eight ranks.
*Stanley: I guess so, I will have to adapt.*
Four cadets were waiting for Stanley when he arrived they were wearing matching black bodysuits with red lines and their company name emblazoned across their chest. If they weren"t 1500mm tall, he would have thought they looked like a private military outfit.
As soon as he presented the taller girl, Picard said sternly, "Let"s go," and began running at a four-minute kilometre pace. Stanley began to wonder were they trying to impress him or kill him.
Given his years of training, it was not a pace that worried him, they would have to get down to and chain three-minute kilometres to hurt him. Granted it was impressive Daedo and Mace"s legs were half the size of his.
Halfway through they turned, it was seven and a half kilometres, which meant they were aiming for fifteen kays in the hour.
Picard asked Daedo, "Are you still on ten?"
"Yeah," he replied, "I"ve told you a hundred times I only weigh thirty-two kilos any more is not healthy."
"I only weigh thirty-nine," she replied. Picard ran with either fifteen or twenty-kilo weights spread from her ankles to her neck.
"You don"t look like you"re under forty," Barran told Picard.
"If one of these three-kilo weights on my wrist were to connect with your nose what do you think the requirements from the first aid cabinet would be?" Picard asked Barran innocently as they ran. And the two went back and forth like this for ten minutes.
Stanley ran with the cadets observing their banter while remaining quiet himself. He was more impressed with their pace upon discovering they carried weights.
"Ok, I"m going to push the last two kays," Barran announced and took off. Due to her weights, Picard was happy to stay with Daedo. Mace, who was usually faster than Picard on the obstacle course just jogged along happily.
"Are you ok Colonel Martin?" Daedo asked when they hit the last kilometre.
"I am fine cadet, thanks for the workout," Stanley replied. "Do you do this daily?"
"On the break we do, and but during term only on weekends. Normally we have a crack at the obstacle course each day. Otherwise, we get exercise with hand to hand, a tailored circuit and the occasional topside run," Daedo answered.
"You do a lot of physical training for Thoth cadets," Stanley observed.
"It doesn"t apply to everyone, but I work hardest in my weakest area. I think for some of the others it is for stress relief, relaxation and enjoyment. The academic subjects can become tiring," Daedo stated.
The cadets. .h.i.t the sonic showers to remove all their sweat and dirt from the road and river run. They had built a small barracks into their workshop large enough to cater for the squad in terms of sleeping, eating and living quarters.
Daedo addressed Stanley directly, "Did you enjoy the run?"
Stanley nodded, Thanks. It is a surprisingly nice place for a run once you get to the river."
"Did you come for a reason today?" Daedo asked.
"I wanted to see your operation first hand, are if you able to give me a tour without worrying about me stealing IP?" Stanley asked.
"Sure Colonel Martin, we have most things covered with patents and pending patents now," Daedo replied. "And what isn"t covered doesn"t have any value yet."
Daedo showed Stanley through the main workshop which they had set up to run automatically from their designs. "I update the weave here," Daedo showed Stanley a screen of his UI and the workshop can manufacture the exo, take it down to lower one and run the gamut of tests which then feed into data here."
"What"s this machine?" Stanley asked.
"Foundry, we make custom alloys and composites with it and the injection mould," Daedo answered showing Stanley the polymer mixing and weaving machinery.
"These are fabricators?" Stanley asked.
"We replaced the heads so we can manufacture pretty much any part we need. If you follow me to the dock I will walk you through," Daedo said.
Daedo led Stanley from the dock back to the foundry room, "We order metals and polymers in, they come into this room, and we create the required composites, which then go to the weaver, fabricator, forge or the machine bench. We have six specialised robots for grinding, bending, compressing and construction. The norms just load, unload following the program."
Daedo then led Stanley down to the test bay which also functioned as gym and gunnery range. It encompa.s.sed the entire lower one floor. "For exos and even just for testing composites we hang them down here, and the robots run through sixteen tests, record the data which feeds back into the development platform," Daedo said.
"This is an impressive setup cadet," Stanley said genuinely. "Are you working on any weapons other than railguns?"
"We just reset our specialties and will be working on improving compounds which will feed into swordlances and shields. The railgun still needs improvement, and we"ll be pushing ahead with drones," Daedo answered.
"Ah the Shu match," Stanley remembered how they were at a severe disadvantage from lack of drones.
Daedo didn"t take Stanley down to lower two, it was one thing mentioning research to GlenCore it was another showing someone through the experiments Cisse was conducting.
Daedo a.s.sembled all the cadets to the main workshop at Stanley"s request.
"Cadets. Thank you for your hospitality, I am extremely impressed with your operation. That being said I am not an expert in business and R and D like our mutual friend Cillian, but from my limited experience, your operation, albeit small, is world cla.s.s."
Stanley began by lavishing praise which he did not do very often, "I am not sure how I can be of a.s.sistance to you. But I want you to contact me if you ever have a need or just want my opinion on something. I see great things coming from you, and I want to do all I can to a.s.sist." Stanley didn"t mention putting them forward to procurement, it was a long shot, therefore not worth acknowledging.
"We do have something we need advice on," Barran asked. "How do we get the EUDF to purchase our exos?"
Stanley grimaced, "This is not an easy thing. The only way I know is to get them on the procurement panel and even then as the have them elected as standard equipment. But that"s easier said than done and it"s not my area of expertise. I would advise you find someone who has done this before for other products and have them get yours accepted."
"Someone like Marais," Daedo said.
"Yes," Stanley agreed, "They have many vehicles as standard issue."
"I have a question," Daedo wanted to ask about the invasion and proof but would let it wait until he was in front of Master Nader. He would attempt it in a different way. "When we graduate, would you advise we join the EUDF, or get taken over by DaVinci or something else?" The question was for information but also a test from Daedo.
"I would advise neither of those two options. I would suggest you continue as Daedalus and create your own Private Military. A continuation of what you are doing now with the difference of government funding in the form of tax breaks and the freedom to change and grow as you see fit." Stanley stated his belief that Governmental defence forces are too rigid and a well run private outfit was superior.
Daedo nodded, Colonel Stanley Martin pa.s.sed his test with flying colours.