Chapter 135 - You shall not pass

Y: 2143 - M2

Daedalus Financial Position:  -10,040,000 bitcreds (includes a 10M windfall from Troika Royalties)

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“How are their vitals?” Master Haddad asked Mace. He could easily look for himself, the question was more about her mental health than his need to be informed.

Mace didn’t look at Master Haddad but replied evenly, “Nothing has changed. Both heart rates are slow and steady, with delta waves as far as brain activity.”

Master Haddad looked at the charts closely. “There is a large difference between Daedo and Master Nader,’ he observed.

Mace nodded, “But each has maintained the same sort of pattern all week. I guess all the work is taking place in his brain where Master Nader is merely in a self-induced stage three deep sleep.”

Master Haddad pulled up standard brain wave patterns, “And Daedo isn’t normal. Is work taking place, his oscillations don’t look like a standard stage four?”

“We can only hope. I’m not sure what she is doing, but, it has to be better then him becoming a vegetable.”

“I contacted Krecke,” Master Haddad said. “She is desperate to join us. She asked why we waited so long to invite her.” He was trying to lighten the mood but received nothing more than a grunt from Mace.

“A change!” Mace observed. Daedo’s brain wave pattern slowly altered, and then slowly it transformed into a light sleep as the oscillations shallowed and the frequency began to increase steadily.

Cadets, educators, friends and family arrived as the news spread. He settled into a light sleep and then fifteen minutes later he rose and walked out of the Med-Lab under his own power.

Mace ran to him and threw her arms around him as the door opened while the rest stood back.

“Ah,” Daedo said in surprise. “Personal space.”

“Stop trying to be funny,” Mace accused, and she cried because he was trying to be funny.

A few minutes passed as his friends punched, ruffled hair or hugged him.

Vannier pushed him out of her hug and said sternly, “Promise to never to something like that again.”

He hung his head, “I’ve learned my lesson. I don’t like all the attention and Master Nader tore strips off me literally. She’s even scary in pseudo dreamland.”

“Her status hasn’t changed,” Ikaros observed. He was off to the side, allowing the young cadets to have their moment.

“She’s gone, father. The person lying there is mom,” Daedo said sadly.

“Nader is gone?” Ikaros asked anxiously.

“Yes. She’s been working on mom for two years, but she said she made little progress until she met me in person. The conscious is such a strange thing.”

“What do you know?” Ikaros asked.

“Everything, Nader told me everything before she left,” Daedo said.

Cisse spoke, “Wait – I hate to interrupt the moment. But, that in there,” she pointed, “is not Nader?”

Daedo shook his head. “No, it’s mom.”

“How?” Cisse was incredulous.

“Ares Nader is an alien that possess people - or other aliens or even specialised computers. She has no body of her own. Not anymore. Not for a long time.” He paused and took in a long stuttering breath.

“She rescued mom from some sort of wormhole between universes. Mom was sucked into it during your accident. It opened a hole for an instant. And then mom was there. And Ares Nader was waiting - she rescued her and brought her back.”

Ikaros was stunned, “So she rescued ‘Laine? If it wasn’t for the alien, our Elaine would be gone?”

Daedo nodded.

Ikaros fell onto his ass. He sat on the floor in disbelief. “I should have thanked her while I had a chance. I thought she stole Elaine from us.” He mumbled to himself.

“It’s going to be fine now father,” Daedo said placing a hand on his father’s head. “I hope.”

“Where is she now?” Master Haddad asked.

Daedo shrugged, “I didn’t ask, and she didn’t say. It may sound silly, but the three of us, Myrmidon included, were busy the entire time. It was a mess up in here.” He tapped the side of his head.

Barran scanned the crowd, “No one has been possessed, right?” He asked everyone.

No one dared to joke. There were solemn shakes of heads all-round.

Daedo couldn’t help himself, so he checked his project status, “I’ve been out almost two weeks? Master Haddad, how is the recruitment drive progressing?”

“We’re still well within budget,” Master Haddad began before Daedo interrupted.

“If you are under budget you are failing. We want the best, we don’t want to miss anyone. And the equipment will help the others train at home. Send them all out, your budget will be increased soon.”

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Eli Morton lived in Michigan with his parents and older sister. They were all ubis while he was still too young. He lived a normal lifestyle. Only going outside and interacting with others when an especially good AR game or show came out. It was then while messing about in a park trying to catch some random critter that he met others his age in real life. Or when he watched, with hundreds of others, a story that was set in Augmented Reality and had localisation for his city.

Otherwise, his entire life was on the net, whether it was tubes, streams, games or cyberschool. There were many groups he belonged to and this was where his real friends were. And they could be from anywhere.

Eli Morton had never played CyberMech, he couldn’t afford the sub or the gear because he was too young to get a Ubi. And his parents were not going to pay for an expensive game like that.

But he still became a fan of Daedalus in the past year. When he heard on the tubes that Daedalus was most likely a thirteen-year-old and a first-year Academy cadet. The rumours went wild through his usual hangouts. The number one player, of the biggest game, was thirteen, and that meant he was ten when he first blasted onto the scene and crushed the existing pros.

He went and watched every old stream in the Daedalus back catalogue as well as listening to all the tuber theories.

Then one day, six months ago, the rumours were confirmed. Daedalus was called Daedo and he attended the Fortescue Military Academy. Daedalus was the same age as Eli.

Then a few months later the big news about a new reactor. A troika reactor and something about anti-matter.

It was Daedalus.

It blew his mind.

It didn’t stop. A few months later - when he heard the news about Daedalus academy – his mind was blown again.

Initially from the official Daedalus stream, which was usually short, dry but information packed. Then repeated in almost every hangout. Discussed. Criticised. Praised. And speculated upon. The whole thing was crazy. Crazy different. Or crazy cool. And crazy mysterious.

And it was free.

Anyone could attend. In fact, if you were already in an Academy, you were told to not bother applying. You could be any age. From any region. All you had to do was play a game and they would only take the best.

There was only one other obstacle; he needed to have a pass in cyberschool ten, (C-10) to even play the games.

Eli Morton had not put the required effort into cyberschool, he was going to when he was close to getting his Ubi, which was in a few years. But he was determined. He wanted to go to Daedalus Academy from the second he heard about it. And nothing anyone said since swayed him from the idea.

He finished off patches of work going back three years in two months. It was gruelling. He felt like he did a years’ worth of work in that period. But he was determined to get his chance. And he couldn’t even practice one of the games without it.

There were three games in the first release.

The Warrior.

The Tactician.

And a strangely named game; You shall not pass.

Eli Morton didn’t have the necessary gear for The Warrior. It required a full motion capture setup, using a capable bodysuit with a VR capable helmet. The cybernetic implant was optional.

When he investigated further, he discovered Daedalus would provide a full setup, including military-grade cybernetic implant, but he had to undergo and pass some sort of profiling test.

He signed up for the test immediately. The bodysuit, helmet and implant were worth over 2,000 bitcreds. It was ludicrous that Daedalus would just give this away. Even if they manufacturered themselves or purchased bulk quantities - it still had to cost a lot. What if they gave out 10,000?

After he signed and completed the test Daedalus gave him a designation and a title.

Prospective Cadet Morton.

Daedalus

Welcome to the first steps on your journey with Daedalus. Please be patient; it will take us an indefinite amount of time to process your profiling test result. And, unless you receive communication that you will not be considered, there is still hope.

You are now designated as Prospective Cadet Morton NA-CF07445.

If successful you will receive a Daedalus bodysuit, helmet, cybernetic implant and traversal equipment. In the meantime, please attempt The Tactician game.

In the event, you receive the equipment, but you are not successful with any of the entry tests you are still eligible to train from home and progress as an external cadet. This is optional, but there are many benefits for you in terms of skill acquisition, academic and physical improvement.

The combat techniques you learn will serve you well in the future.

Thank you

Master Haddad – Academy Head

Prospective Cadet (PC) Morton began to play The Tactician as he waited for the outcome of the profiling test. He liked to think of himself as smart. He did well in strategy games and cyberschool.

He was placed in virtual reality with full directive command over either eight mechs or exos. Every player had points to spend on their team’s capability and a separate point pool for the loadout. He first played against the AI through an ever-increasing scenario difficulty.

After initial success PC Morton was confident, so he began to queue for PVP matches. He fought hard for two weeks but couldn’t break into the top two thousand ranking. The higher his ranking got, the worse his win-loss ratio became. At ranking 2400 to 2500 he consistently ran at .500 win-loss. Which meant this was his equilibrium rank and he didn’t deserve higher.

Out of the millions playing the free game with no microtransactions, this was an achievement. But not enough, what if Daedalus only took the top one hundred. There was no way they would take someone outside the top one thousand.

The commentary or rumour streams suggested that Daedalus only need one tactician per eight cadets. It was logical because all the games had a team of eight. Which meant they would need seven times more warriors than they would tacticians.

The streamers and tubers also suggested that at most Daedalus would take one thousand. While some said, ten thousand and others said one hundred. The consensus was between one hundred and one thousand since they were just starting.

PC Morton sighed, in reality, the streamers and tubers were just hypothesising. He wished Daedalus would release more news. Concrete facts for him to place his hopes in. But their channel. The Daedalus channel. The most subscribed channel in the world was usually silent. When it came on, everyone rushed to is as soon as its notification pinged. Without concrete news from Daedalus, the expert commentators were all he had to go by.

The next day a message arrived.

Daedalus

Congratulations Prospective Cadet Morton NA-CF07445 you have been promoted to External Cadet Morton NA-CF07445. Your package with the Daedalus starter equipment is on its way to you now via drone.

You will be able to participate in the game The Warrior, but more importantly, you will be able to access and participate in our external cadet training. This training will qualify you for your regional Ubi with a C13 equivalency.

Please accept our non-disclosure agreement before continuing. You will not be able to share this information with any non-Daedalus personnel or leave this information in a location that non-Daedalus personnel can view.

Daedalus

Thank you, Eli Morton, for accepting. Daedalus will keep its word, and it is up to you to keep yours.

Cadet Morton NA-CF07445 if you complete all the training, whether it is internally or externally, you will be offered a place in the Daedalus military. All Daedalus military personnel receive a Daedalus exo, weapon systems and monthly wage.

Eli Morton, aka Cadet Morton, stopped reading.

“Holy,” he breathed and wondered how many exos Daedalus would be gifting. It was like a worldwide conspiracy. A conspiracy he was a part of. And he couldn’t be happier.

He stood and ran around his room screaming for joy until his sister banged on his door. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing sis,” he lied. “I just got under rank one hundred is all.” She would not care what game he was referring to.

Daedalus was true to their word. The package arrived within the hour. A specialist bot surgically installed his implant and the bodysuit and helmet fit perfectly. Eli wasn’t an expert, but the bodysuit seemed to be top tier. It had every add-on he had ever heard about and some he hadn’t.

He cleared as large a space as possible and his room and installed the traversal supplied as part of his package. It would enable him to run and move in any direction without moving in real terms.

He logged into The Warrior as soon as his game was set up. He had to sign another NDA with Daedalus. They did not want certain data being made public or streaming of the game at all.

When he looked at the rankings, Eli gasped. There were over twenty-five thousand players. He wondered how many had owned the gear and how many were gifted by Daedalus.

Eli had fallen short when it came to the tactician and now it was time for the warrior. The game where how you moved, in reality, was how you moved in the game. There were no stats for the player’s reaction, strength, speed or stamina. All the players had the same exos and choice of weapons. It was only the AI enemy which differed.

There were no unlocks. No upgrades. What you received on the first day was everything. And Eli felt that you didn’t play this game for fun. It was serious. The players were serious, and the competition was serious. The prize was serious.

When you died in the game. The message was simple.

Game: You died.

Everything went black and he was kicked out of the game for an hour.

Cadet Morton hated dying in the game more than any before. It was the most frustrating thing to be unable to get back in and play straight away. Every time he died, he napped or grabbed something to eat.

And then he played again. His sleep pattern was shot. He only slept for 45mins, but it was ten times a day. His bodysuit could wake him the second he was able to play again. It was an inbuilt feature.

After his latest death he screamed in frustration.

His mother knocked on his door, “What’s wrong!”

“Just a game mom. It’s frustrating,” he replied.

“Play another then. Don’t play something that doesn’t make you happy. Have you done all your cyberschool?”

“I passed C-ten mom, a month ago,” he replied.

“Oh!” She exclaimed through his door, “Why didn’t you say?”

He came out of his room, he was locked out of the game for an hour. “I’ll tell you when I pass C-13,” came his reply. It was at that time he became eligible for UBI in the North America region.

“Do you ever take that thing off?” She asked looking at his Daedalus bodysuit.

He changed the colour from the red preset to the black preset. “I don’t need to, it's self-cleaning. And as you can see, I can change colours at will. You know, not many people have one of these?”

“I saw it on the stream. Many people are worried about Daedalus. They are dangerous.”

Eli laughed as he walked to the kitchen. “Mum they make everything from games to reactors. And they gave me this free. If I get into the Academy that’s free too. Please tell me one other company that does that?”

She followed him. “That’s why people are worried. Daedalus is not normal. What are their motives?”

“Same as every company Mom. They want to take over the world,” he laughed at his joke because it was so true.

“I will have to think about this before I agree,” she said. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Cadet Morton had already read what to do if his parents tried to stop him. “I will do what’s right Mom.” And that was to never agree with them, record all conversations to the bodysuit storage and if he wanted to, if he had to, he could emancipate. The old generation always resisted change. They were always fearful of something new. Guardian resistance was to be expected, understood, but not embraced.

Eli, or Cadet Morton, which was his in-game name as well as his designation went back to play after an hour’s break. He killed himself playing the game hardcore for the next month and got himself into the top two hundred.

He died in a particularly hard match. Where he was fighting alongside another seven of the elite, from the top two hundred players. They were fighting swarm after swarm of insect-like monsters. But they were eventually overcome by the AI. It was an impossible mission.

This time when he died, he received a different message.

Game: Do you want to play a different game?

Cadet Morton: The other one?

Game: If you pass you gain entry into the Academy.

Cadet Morton: Okay. Let’s do this.

Game: Welcome to – You shall not pass.

The game screen went blank for a moment before he was thrust into a ruined city. There were no instructions. Nothing. He was standing alone in what looked to be his city. But the buildings were in ruins, the mag roads were cracked. There were no drones or autocars.

He heard a sound.

It sounded like the insects he had just fought. And then he saw them. There were thousands. And they were running towards him.

Eli had played games before, but nothing as real as this. The insects were roaming in his hometown and it seemed real. Very real.

Even the warrior game was not like this. There was a Hud, commands and all sorts of aids in the warrior game.

The insects caught him, and he watched as they pulled his body apart until the screen finally went black.

Game: You did not pass. Try again?

Cadet Morton: Yes.

Eli was consumed by the nightmare that was – You shall not pass – but he was not going to give up. He was determined to get into the Academy no matter what. He knew Daedalus was up to something big. Something unbelievable. He was only fourteen, but he wanted to be a part of it.