1.28
“Alright, run me through this again, and go slow cause this shit is confusing,” Cameron said, keeping his eyes focused on the path forward as his voice rose to be heard over the din of haggling merchants and laughing mercs, “So, classes are based on the pilot and not the mech?”
Logan sighed, running his hands through his hair in frustration as he looked at Cameron incredulously, “Okay… one more time,” He said, slowing his pace in order to focus before breaking into his spiel.
“The fleet and pilot kind as a whole has a ranking system set in place in order to control the saturation of contracts, mechs, and money. There’s five ranks; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Sigma, and Omega. The ranking system applies to the three major components of the Fleet, being Companies, A.R.M.S. units, and pilots. The only distinction is with the pilot ranking as each of these ranks in turn have three sub ranks that reside within them. Those sub ranks are Legos, Sirius, and Primus.”
“And I take it that an Alpha Primus is stronger than an Alpha Sirius, right?” Cameron asked, speaking slowly as he attempted to take it all in.
Logan nodded, “Exactly, and a Beta Legos is stronger than an Alpha Primus.”
“Just how much stronger?” Cameron asked.
Logan contemplated for a moment, bringing a finger up to stroke the wisps of gray hair that were peppered throughout his goatee, “It fluctuates dependent on the overall ranking. An Alpha Legos pilot can still handedly defeat an Alpha Primus, if the former is skilled enough. But wouldn’t have a snowball's chance in hell when pitted against a Beta Sirirus. Rule of thumb is this; The higher the overall rank, the larger the gap in skill between that pilot and all others underneath them.”
“And what determines a pilot's skill?” Cameron asked, following closely behind as Logan approached a moving sidewalk, its long black pavement-like floors slowly guiding them deeper into Arisus station, so far off into the distance that Cameron couldn’t even see where it ended. They boarded together as Logan leaned against the right handrail, resting his weight on his elbows, before looking over a Cameron like the answer was obvious.
“Missions, of course,” He said, “That and confirmed kills. Your unit records these metrics, and confirms there validity through logs that are kept in your synaptic uplink port. Once enough of these metrics are met, you’ll recieve an alert that says your approved for a promotion.
“Okay…” Cameron said with a slow nod. His head felt groggy and dumb as it tried to process all this information. He felt like he was understanding, but not to the extent that he needed to, which in turn lead to further questions.
“So that’s pilot rating, but why do the mechs have ratings? Aren’t they all based around the similar level of ability? Shouldn’t their rank come from the pilots and not their own? Why do they need one?”
“Upgrades dumbass,” Aurora said to his left causing his graze to turn and focus on her. She, like Logan was also leaning against the railing, but her gaze seemed to be focused on peering into the relatives mechanics shops that slowly went by.
“Upgrades?” He asked, this time pulling her attention to him. She sighed and slowly nodded, speaking in a tone that reminded Cameron of how a mother would explain something to a toddler.
“Yes. Upgrades. All enhancements that can be added onto your chassis whether it be Hardware or Software are rank locked.”
Before Cameron could pose his follow up question, Logan had jumped in to offer a better explanation, “Think of it like this, if you had all the money on Ketris, you could theoretically buy whatever mech you wanted, kit it out to your hearts content, and boom, you got the only Sigma class mech in your sector. But you have no time put inside of it, you’re not used to it’s idiosyncrasies and are just generally unfamiliar with the unit as a whole. Now you essentially just spent perhaps trillions of silver to have a very shiny, very large, and very deadly paperweight. The ranking system keeps snot-nosed nobles or diplomats from trying to play soldier where the could get themselves, or more importantly, their teammates killed.”
It was starting to click into place for Cameron, and he felt a swelling on confidence the longer Logan spoke.
“I gotcha. So it plays hand in hand with the pilot ranking. The more missions you complete, the more confirmed kills you get, justifies to the system that you’re competent enough to handle being faster, stronger, whatever.”
“Exactly,” Logan said, nodding in approval, “Now you’re getting it.”
Cameron could feel a smile forming at the corners of his mouth, when suddenly, another question came to him, causing him to look at Logan with an even more confused gaze.
“Hold up. In that scenario, you said I’d have the only Sigma unit in the sector. Are Sigmas really that rare?”
Logan scoffed, looking over at Cameron like he couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth, “Uh… Yeah kid. They’re that rare.”
“Really?” Cameron probed, his eyes widening as he tried to pry out further details from his mentor. “I mean, if there’s this many people in Arisus Station,” He motioned to the open space around them, filled with people shopping, walking, and conversing with one another, “Just how rare can they be?”
“Around Five percent of the total population,” Logan said, his tone neutral and deadpanned.
Cameron felt like his jaw was going to hit the floor, “Five percent? That’s it?”
Logan nodded, looking around at the undulating mob of Pilots and mechanics. “Yeah. And that’s being generous if I’m being honest. Once you hit Gamma class, I’m told it slows down to a crawl. At that point, the money is amazing, but the risk is so high that people either retire, die, or open up their own GACs. Past that, the only people left are in it for the love of the game.”
“I figured you were already Gamma class.” Cameron said, watch as Logan shook his head, his eyes taking on a more reflective nature.
“Not yet, I would have been if certain events hadn’t transpired like they did. But they did, and now I’m only a Beta Primus pilot.”
“Only, my ass,” Aurora chimed in, glaring at Logan, “That’s still the top twenty percent of the population. Be proud of that.”
Logan couldn’t help but chuckle, flashing the girl a shiny smile. “Thanks Aurora, I appreciate you.”
“So…” Cameron said, looking between the two of them. “If Logan’s in the top twenty percent, and a Sigma class is only five percent, at best… What about Omega classes?”
There wasn’t an answer right away from either party. Instead, Aurora and Logan simply looked at Cameron, then at each other, before offering him a shrug.
“That’s it?!” Cameron asked, irritation apparent in his tone, “All I get is a half-assed shrug?”
“I can’t tell you what no one knows Cam,” Aurora said matter-of-factly.
“What do you mean no one knows?” Cameron asked, scoffing with incredulity. He turned to look at Logan to see if he could help shine some light on the situation, but he too was unable to give a firm answer.
“She’s telling the truth kid. Omegas are the great big mystery of The Fleet.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cameron asked. He felt a peculiar sensation in the pit of his stomach as he voiced his question. Some sense of uneasiness that bubbled up inside of him, like he was looking for some taboo knowledge that no one was supposed to know. Nevertheless, Logan obliged his curiosity with the best answer he could muster.
“I’ve been in The Fleet for fifteen years kid, and I’ve only seen two Omega class pilots. And even then, it was because I was attached as reserve unit with a team of Gammas. I…” He chewed at his lip, searching for the right words, “I don’t know how to describe them kid, but they’re not human. They can’t be.”
“Why do you say that?” Cameron probed, eyes wide and ears open, ready to recieve any information he could gleam from Logan’s memories, grateful that as he looked past the man, the end of their path was still far off in the distance.
“Because no human could survive what these guys put themselves through,” Logan said, his voice hushed slightly, “There’s a certain point where technology becomes so advanced it’s indistinguishable from magic and when I watched these two fight… magical was the only way to describe it. At base Alpha class, if you can hit a hundred miles an hour, then you can count yourself lucky that you got one of the fastest A.R.M.S. fresh off the assembly line. At Beta class, the average movement is closer to two hundred miles an hour. And it only goes up from there.
“So what, they were moving at like 1000 miles an hour or something?” Cameron asked, still trying to grasp the gravity of power these pilots supposedly held.
Logan shook his head, looking directly into Cameron’s eyes, speaking softly, as if his words were meant only for him.
“That’s the thing kid. I can’t tell you how fast they were going because I didn’t see them. None of us did. One minute they were standing there sizing each other up, the next, they were gone. But we heard them. For half a minute, it sounded like the sky itself was being split open. They were moving so fast, that our eyes, and those of our units sensors couldn’t track them. There was some weird… pressure the built up in the air around us, and it nearly pinned my Crusader to the ground. I thought I was gonna die. But just as quick as it started. It was over,” He said, snapping his fingers to emphasize the swift conclusion, “And suddenly, we were looking at one badly damaged Mech, and one heap of melted slag.”
“Holy shit…” Cameron said, under his breath.
“Took the words out of my mouth, kid.” Logan said, nodding slowly. “I can remember when it was over, the other mech had turned to look at us. And then, it simply turned and walked away. There were thirty of us there kid. Twenty Gammas and ten Betas and that pilot could have cared less. We weren’t worth it. But we were lucky that day.”
There was a silence among the trio as they seemed to absorb the gravity of Logan’s words. It was only when they fully stepped off the platform and onto the non-moving ground, that Cameron spoke up.
“I’m not gonna lie… That sounds pretty fucking awesome.”
“Right?!” Aurora said, causing Cameron to do a double take from the fact they had actually agreed on something.
Logan couldn’t hide his amusement, quietly chuckling and shaking his head, “I guess you had to have been there,” Then he shrugged, and nodded his head towards a large opening in the stations center wall, strewn with a series of flashing neon lights that spelled out “Monty’s Mech Mart” in bright flashing letters.
“We’re here kids,” He said, raising his voice to be heard over Aurora’s aggravated groan.
“Ugh! Why are we here? I hate dealing with Monty!” She cried out, glaring daggers at Logan.
“What’s wrong with Monty?” Logan asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Shall I list my grievances alphabetically or chronologically?” She asked, not giving Logan a chance to reply before diving into her rant, raising a finger for every issue she voiced, “He smells, he’s cheap, he sells second hand parts at wholesale prices, he once tried to hawk an oxygen recycling system that had cracked valves which I spent a month and a half trying to fix so you wouldn’t suffocate when out on a contract, AND he shamelessly checks me out every time he sees me.”
Cameron was speechless as he watched Logan take Aurora’s ranting full force, letting her get everything off her chest before finally responding.
“Two things,” He began, “First of all, I didn’t know he made you uncomfortable because you don’t tell me these things. If you want me to, next time he does it, I’ll drag him out into the street and hit him with so many rights, he’ll be begging me for a left,”
Cameron could see a tinge of blush appear on Aurora’s cheeks as Logan gave his proclamation, quietly huffing out “You’re not my dad,” under her breath.
“Second,” He continued, ignoring her comment, “He’s the only that has the units I found for Cameron.”
Aurora rolled her eyes, scrunched her nose, and crossed her arms, thumping her foot in a way that reminded Cameron of a pissed off bunny. If he hadn’t heard some of the things that left her mouth in the short time of him knowing her, he’d almost think it was cute.
“Fine,” Aurora said after a moment, causing Logan to crack a smile. The man turned to Cameron then and raised an eyebrow.
“Ready to find your soulmate?”