Mx hub, p.26
MX Hub, page 26
Spork Cult continues its universal domination, he chuckled to himself.
Looking over the room, he saw a lot of satisfied faces; he was far from the only one to have enjoyed dinner. Even Hammish and his brother looked quite pleased. Zander motioned to one of the staff, his eyes still roving the room.
“Yes, sir?” the man asked softly to not disturb the others.
“My pad has a recipe for a specific beverage I’d like made, please,” Zander murmured.
The server produced his pad. “I’ll take the recipe and bring it back as quickly as possible, sir.”
Sent, Selda told Zander.
“Thank you,” Zander smiled, nodding toward the recipe displayed on his pad.
The staff member’s eyebrows went up, as Zander had never reached for it. “Umm… yes. Of course.”
Veldiami’s lips twitched upward. “Make it two.”
“Yes, miss,” he said before hurrying away.
“Now I’ll ask you: what did I just ask for?”
“Coffee. It’s like a darker, bitter tea. High in a chemical that helps wake Terrans up. Selda, will it be okay for the captain?”
I checked it with her profile. She’ll be fine. If anything, she’ll love it blacker than normal.
“Selda thinks you’ll be fine,” Zander told her. “Said you might think it’s weak and could be even darker.”
“Hmm? My people do have a different palate than many other races. I’ll look forward to it.”
Lavella cleared her throat, and the room projected the sound to everyone. “Now that dinner is over, or finishing for those lingering on dessert, we can move on with the important business of the evening.”
The small conversations around the room came to an end as everyone focused on her, then on the holographic image of her that appeared in the middle of the room, making it easy for everyone to see. Zander frowned when he caught edges of the hologram that made it seem like it faced each person directly.
It’s the tech involved. You see the edges because I do. None of the rest here see it like you do, Selda told him.
Good to know. So you’re better than the tech involved?
A-firm. This universe is a little behind where I was from.
Huh… let’s keep that in reserve for now.
“We’ll begin with the simulation rules,” Lavella began. “You will be scored on how long it takes to clear the mission. There will be penalty time added for each pilot killed, as well as how damaged your mecha are at the end of the simulation run. Questions?”
“Yes,” Hammish said loudly, but then lowered his voice when the hologram shifted to display him. “Why the penalties? Why should it matter if the mecha are damaged or if we’re killed? It should just be how quickly we finish it.”
“Because for captains, the cost of repairing the mecha, as well as acquiring a new pilot, isn’t negligible,” Lavella replied. The hologram became a split of the two of them.
“Bah,” Gralzav snorted, his brother’s image being replaced with his. “That’s just the cost of doing business.”
“Which matters to some of us,” Azuki said snidely. “I think this is a good idea. Pilots should be more mindful of their mecha.”
“As much as I hate agreeing with him, Azuki has a point,” Calhoun said grudgingly.
“I, too, have to agree on this point,” Sigfre added, her features appearing in place of the last two captains. “Every captain knows the cost of repairs. We have to take them into account, even if our pilots do not.”
More captains chimed in in agreement; a large number of pilots looked disgruntled at their captains for daring to say they should be more mindful, though about a dozen nodded along with theirs.
“It seems we have a majority,” Lavella said, her image taking over the hologram again. “Now, shall we move on with choosing which mecha will be in each simulation?”
Hammish cleared his throat, letting himself appear on the hologram before he said, “We should limit this to leaders who have piloted said class of mecha. After all, a pilot who’s never driven a juggernaut shouldn’t give advice on which ones would be best.”
A handful of other pilots were quick to support that idea, and Zander mentally marked each who did.
Each is a decorated pilot. All of them come from the wealthiest of ships, Selda told him. It’s why they’re agreeing; their ships have juggernauts.
“Excuse me,” Zander said, letting the hologram catch up to him. “Fractured Dreams doesn’t have a juggernaut class mecha, but I agree with them. I’d add that Maverick’s lead engineer would have even more experience in what mecha might be best, though.”
“I have a list of mecha from him, but he is not here,” Lavella said. “Let us table the juggernaut talk until we get there. We can start with the scout and cavalry classes, as all ships have them.”
Veldiami gave the staff member a smile when he set two cups of steaming liquid in front of her and Zander. Knowing how the tech worked, Veldiami leaned back from the table, then toward Zander to whisper to him, “I thought you had a list of mecha for each class?”
Zander copied her actions so their heads were near each other. “Lavella asked if we could work with random mecha and I assured her that we could. This will make it harder for people to find fault with our squad winning everything. I’m not going to suggest a single mecha, and I’m even on record for backing Hammish’s suggestion now, too.”
Veldiami’s eyebrow rose, but she nodded, then sat back upright, taking a sip of her coffee. She waggled a hand at Zander’s questioning look. When he sipped from his cup, he had to agree that it was weaker than he’d prefer. He waggled his hand back at her, then mouthed, “Sage makes better,” earning a nod.
~*~*~
It took a couple of hours to get through all four classes of mecha. The infantry class was the most hotly contested for which six mecha would be approved. A couple of pilots sat back, looking sour, as Lavella had approved that the lead pilot needed to have piloted that specific class in combat to have a voice. That got Zander laughing— with that rule in place, he technically couldn’t comment on any of the classes. His record showed no actual deployments.
“Now that we have it all settled,” Lavella said primly, “I should note that eight squads will be running each day. Your squads can take breaks between each simulation. We expect it will take a full day per block of eight to finish them all, meaning it will take eight days to finish the simulation tournament. I do thank the Assembly for helping us arrange the capsules. There will also be Assembly security on hand to keep an eye on everyone.”
“To stop some from manufacturing accidents, you mean,” Azuki snorted. “I thank you on behalf of my pilots.”
“I’ve been told by the representative of MX Hub that the Assembly will be watching this inaugural tournament with interest,” Lavella smiled. “Anyone who acts out will no doubt find the full displeasure of the Assembly.”
A low murmur went through the room as the captains and their pilots leaned back to have discussions amongst themselves.
“All that’s left is to select the order that your squads will undertake the simulations,” Lavella went on after a moment. “We have sixty-four squads who have signed up for both tournaments, which is gratifying. Even though a few of you are from the same ships, we are willing to allow it. Before me is a bowl with all the lead pilots’ names written down on folded slips of paper. I will select the first squad, and that pilot will then come up and select the next, and so on. This way, everyone knows it is completely the luck of the draw on where each of you goes.”
“Why are you drawing first?” Hammish asked. “Why not let someone else start the draw?”
“Because it would look suspicious if that person pulled their own name,” Lavella replied. “But if you insist, you may go first. I’ll just need to remove your name from the bowl, then add it in after you draw.”
Hammish nodded standing up. “I find that vastly preferable.”
“Of course, a Dwarf has a problem,” Sigfre said, her image appearing in the middle of the room. “Oops. Did I say that out loud?” There was no actual apology in her tone.
Hammish glanced at her before snorting and continuing toward Lavella’s table. “Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
Sighing, Lavella proceeded to pull all the names until she found Hammish’s slip. She put the rest back in, mixed the bowl, and then presented it to him. “In the first group will be…”
~*~*~
Zander was fine with being sixth from last to be drawn, but he was vastly amused that Hammish ended up dead last. He was sure the Dwarf would throw a fit when he failed to top Zander’s squad. Since they were both running on the last day, it would be entertaining.
“Now, we move on to the second part of the tournament,” Lavella smiled. “The squad-versus-squad fights.”
Everyone in the room focused intently on her.
“We want this to be fair, so you will pull from the previous list of mecha chosen. You may only field a single juggernaut regardless of how you wish to divide your forces. Other than that, you are left with a total tonnage to come in under: three hundred and seventy-five tons. Once your mecha are chosen, you are stuck with them for the duration, so choose wisely.”
“Why limit us?” Hammish growled.
“If we didn’t, you’d all be in juggernauts or infantry mecha,” Lavella said as if it was obvious. “This gives you flexibility on how you want to divide your squad while still giving you options and allowing you to bring a juggernaut if you want.”
“It makes sense. We want to have good fights where leadership and cunning can be displayed, not just juggernauts,” Sigfre said.
Other captains and pilots sided with Sigfre. That got Hammish to back off the point, as he wasn’t going to push against most of the people in the room— he had confidence in his squad to sweep the field no matter what.
“That just leaves us with matching your squads against each other,” Lavella smiled. “As we have sixty-four, we can do a simple bracket matching. We’ll be using the same eight-unit setup for this part of the tournament. It’ll be four fights per round, and we’ll be running two matches a day. It’ll take us four days for the first round, two days for the second round, and a single day for the round of sixteen. Then, we’ll run the final eight teams on the next to last day. The last day will be the final four and the finals, meaning there will be two fights for the winners that day.”
“How will you be picking our brackets?” Hammish asked suspiciously.
“A guest will be doing that,” Lavella smiled as if she’d been waiting for someone to ask. “Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to introduce the former MX Hub Assembly representative, Haysol Festiv.”
The far door opened and a Satyr came striding into the room. He had a gray cloth wrapped around his waist so it looked like a half-toga. His goat hooves clacked on the floor as he went. His neatly-trimmed goatee and hair were slicked with oil. Jewelry of all types decorated his fingers, ears, horns, nose, and neck. A murmur of respect came from the room, and a few captains stood to bow slightly to him. He made sure to acknowledge those who did.
Veldiami leaned well back to whisper, not wanting to get picked up by the hologram system, “Slick fucker… Rumor says he lifted a few hundred mega credits during his tenure to the Hub, but he always slipped the charges. Add in the positive things he did do, and he’d built enough goodwill to stop people from digging too far.”
Zander leaned back with her. “So basically, like any politician?”
“But better at what he did than most,” Veldiami chuckled.
When Haysol reached Lavella’s table, a staff member rushed a seat out to him. Haysol waved the man off, remaining standing, instead. “Thank you, but I always feel better standing when talking.” He looked down at Lavella, who handed him a small device. “There we go. Now I can talk as I prefer.” He started walking back to the middle of the floor, the hologram shifting to rise above him.
Zander watched the Satyr; he had to admit that the man had a charisma about him. He walked with purpose, his voice pitched to catch the listener’s attention and hold it.
“I’m glad to be here tonight. When Ms. Hemoesta reached out to me and asked me if I’d like to be a part of this, I was cautious to start with, but once she explained it all, I knew I had to.” Haysol flashed a brilliant smile, slowly turning to look over the room. “I had a simple job: to take the squads who’d opted in and match them into brackets. Since none of you knew I was involved, none of you could’ve influenced things. She’s a crafty one.”
A murmur went through the room as Haysol chuckled.
“Before I reveal the brackets for the mecha-versus-mecha fights, I wanted to take a moment to thank you.” Haysol grew somber, turning slowly to look at each pair of captain and pilot. “Thank you for putting your lives on the line to keep the Entoma threat back. I know more than most of the Assembly how real that threat is, having made MX Hub my home. Every night before I go to bed, I say a prayer to the Antecedents for all of you.”
A scattering of applause became thunderous in seconds as peer pressure worked its magic. Zander idly clapped, not really feeling it. The Antecedents might be revered by the rest of the room, but he wasn’t enamored of the pacifistic geniuses who refused to clean up their own damned mess.
“Now, for all of you to see who you will face…” With a flourish, his hands shot upward. Above him, the hologram projected a bracket for the squads. “There we are. This will be distributed to you in a moment, but just take a minute and gaze at your starting position and who you face.”
“Fuck.” That single word was loud, coming from the pilot with Calhoun. The hologram didn’t change, but the audio system was still in place.
Laughter filled the room as people found the pilot’s ship matched up against Proud Axe. The bracket listed the ship name, or in the case of a few crews, which finger of the ship was going up against another.
“Yes. Some of you have it rough at the start,” Haysol laughed with the crowd, “but that’s how these things happen. Someone had to face them in the first round.”
“We basically get the first round off,” Hammish laughed, smirking at the upset pilot. That earned some uncomfortable laughter.
“Now, now, let’s keep it friendly,” Haysol chuckled. “I myself will be betting on them to win the match against you, Hammish.”
“With the odds you’d get, I don’t blame you, but it’s still lost money,” Hammish laughed again.
The insulted pilot shot to his feet, glaring at the Dwarf. “I’ll see you in the capsules.” With that, he stalked away. Calhoun trailed him, glaring at the Proud Axe table.
When they’d left, Haysol sighed. “Ladies and gentlemen, we know that your pride is on the line, but let’s keep this upbeat and mostly happy. I wish you all luck. I’ll be very interested in who wins each fight.”
“Your credit account will be, at least,” Azuki snickered.
“That, too,” Haysol said amiably. “Let’s not pretend you won’t all be placing bets, too. But seriously, good luck in the tournament.”
With that, he strode for the doors, done with his appearance and glad to have had the easy money handed to him by Lavella.
Chapter Thirty-five
Zander thanked Lavella’s Fire Giant butler, Kled, when he was let in. The large man nodded as he shut the door before leading Zander to Lavella’s quarters.
“Thank you, Kled,” the Frost Giant maid said as she met Zander outside Lavella’s rooms. “Sir, do you require anything before the mistress returns?”
Zander looked up at the maid, something he’d rarely ever had to do in his life before coming to this universe. She let out a small puff of frost when she spoke, leaving a momentary chill to the air.
“I’ll be fine, Issole. In the morning, I’ll need what I had for breakfast the last time I stayed the night.”
“Yes, sir…” Issole trailed off a little before she cleared her throat. “If I might ask, sir, you will treat her right, yes? She’s been very happy since your first night over, but now, she rarely asks for us.”
Zander’s lips twitched as she trailed off. “You miss being prey for her?”
Issole’s cheeks purpled slightly as the blood rushed to her light blue skin. “Yes.”
“I’ll remind her to take care of her prey,” Zander grinned. “It’ll be weeks before I’m back here, so she’ll be ready to feed on you long before I return.”
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. If you do hurt her, sir…” The Giantess met his eyes. A puff of arctic air came from her nostrils, a small vapor cloud forming for an instant. “I will find a way to return the hurt, even if it costs me.”
