Chapter 21

“Did you know she was like that?”

That was a difficult question. Anyone that watched Sara's matches would know that she was relentless towards an opponent, but her post-match interviews painted her as a kind hearted athlete that regretted how aggressive she was while playing the game. Unfortunately, that image was one created by a PR company.

After retirement, and not being in contact with her coaches and advisors for more than a decade, Sara had no script to follow and instead likely acted purely on her emotions. There was a saying that went, 'never meet your heroes lest you find out they are human', a saying that became a reality for those that saw the real Sara Campbell.

Had they thought about it for a few minutes, they might have realised a bit earlier that she wasn't like her reputation. The biggest give away was probably Satou Campbell's existence. Sara was only a couple years older than Jeff, she was still in her early to mid-thirties, yet she had a son that was nearly graduating high-school. Aside from cult-like religious folk, Jeff couldn't think of anyone with a clean reputation that has a child that young. It was evident that the country's plan to turn a blind eye on under-aged pilots getting knocked up was effective, since it led to Satou's ridiculous DC.

Even if it was tacitly condoned by the government, it didn't change that she hid the whole thing with retirement, even going so far as making sure Satou didn't reveal his surname. In that regard she was at least more careful than the Kaya family.

But that was entirely beside the point for Jeff. Since he knew about the way she cheated her way to victory, he had no doubt that Sara was remorseless. While he had first been told that she had retired out of shame and to protect the legitimacy of the competition, when he thought about it later, there was no reason that that should be true. The country was already covering the whole thing up and it was nearly impossible for anyone to work out how she did it. At the time, DC was still a scarcely understood concept, so rigs seemed far more mystic and unknowable.

Considering that, there was no reason for the country to make her stop.

If she had continued, it was unlikely Sara would have been caught. Furthermore, the country could have made massive gains with very little risk. When Jeff later discovered Satou, the pieces fell in place. It wasn't cheating that forced her to retire, it was pregnancy. The Kayas' never revealed why, but they had explicitly said that pregnant women shouldn't use a rig with a core.

For most of the public, retirement because of her mechanist retiring would do for an excuse and for those that dug deeper; Satou could be used to hide the cheating. It was an elegant solution; one that just proved that Sara didn't regret what she did in the slightest.

His reasoning was long, but Jeff's answer to Sam was short; yes, he knew she was like that.

Some part of him did feel sorry for Satou, who was taken to hospital to have his stomach sown back together. Jeff couldn't imagine what he would be feeling. How could it have felt? He was just moments away from victory, his mother was in danger, and his mother tricked and stabbed him. He went from competing in a higher division to lying on a doctor’s table all at the hands of someone he implicitly trusted.

On the other hand, it really worked out well for Jeff. Alicia Kaya was always kept informed about those that knew her identity, and she knew that if she cheated in a match against Jeff, his confidentiality agreement would be invalidated. As such, Jeff was able to ensure that Sav could completely crush Sara, and more importantly Alicia. While Jeff wasn't usually one to harbour a grudge, in particular one based on an emotional wrong, he made an exception for Alicia Kaya.

Jeff knew that when Sav beat Sara, he would feel like he had beaten Alicia after driving her into a corner. It was almost a kind of predatory satisfaction, a primal need to toy with the weak and assert dominance. He almost never felt the need to feel like that, and it was even rarer that he had an opportunity to act on it. But since he had the chance, he was going to take it.

Although Alicia would have a file on him, detailing his history and tenancies, it was unlikely that she could know how much he wanted to crush her; that was an advantage he had. Most mechanists would focus on the tendencies of the pilot and rig, but the best would also think about the opposing mechanist. With Alicia's experience, there was no way that she wouldn't read the parts list and make plans in advance, so submitting early would be handing her an advantage. On the other hand, the preparation and planning in the previous matches was evident from the way the rounds progressed, so there was no way that she would believe any rig designs that were submitted early were legitimate.

That was exactly what he would do. He submitted the design from the previous match; the military armoured angel with a bayoneted assault rifle, from the match with the Black Spider. Jeff even went so far as to reuse the same part submissions, just with dates changed. There was so little work involved in doing that, that there was no mechanist alive that would actually believe it was the rig that would be used. It might have well been a blank document labelled 'Place-holder'.

Only with the closest attention to detail would anyone notice that the composition of the armour had been slightly changed in several places. With the amount of bloated entries in that file and with the differences being so few, it was essentially impossible to notice. Analytical software could have pointed out the differences, but since the overview looked the same, it seemed like a waste of valuable processing power and time to bother.

But those changes, despite being so small, actually had a large impact on the overall performance of the armour, shifting the vulnerabilities and hardening the defences. At the ten minute mark, when Alicia realised that Sav was actually using the submitted rig, there wouldn't be enough time to run a theoretical analysis on the design, and would only have enough to run on the performance data from the previous match. In short, they would be aiming at vulnerabilities that didn't exist and would have almost no time to design a counter for their rig.

At the submission deadline, Alicia was forced to submit the blank pit method rig. It had no surprises and showed that she also didn't know what Jeff had planned. She apparently wasn't willing to underestimate her opponent, as the connection holes on the metallic silver frame were covered with heavy metal lids. They weren't just in place to stop dust and debris; they seemed to be able to take at least one hit. Otherwise it was a very standard pit method rid, complete with a metal shield and knife equipped.

What surprised Jeff was that it seemed that they were following their rig method completely, not making any changes, despite not having access to the extra power they normally relied on. He couldn't be sure if it was pride, confidence, or the intention to lose, but it honestly didn't seem like they knew what they were doing. While he was thinking about that, a cold chill ran down his back.

“If Sara hasn't been in contact with her old staff, who's to say Alicia has.”

While mumbling that aloud, Jeff set the last minute preparations to automated and dashed to set up monitoring software. Since he was just adjusting the settings of an existing program, he managed to get it done in time for the start of the match. Without a direct connection to their opponent, it would only be estimated, but if it was clear that their energy use was well outside expectations, the contract he signed would be violated. It didn't matter if she realised he knew or not, the mere fact that she cheated in a match against him would be enough to let him go public.

Not that he really would go public, that kind of publicity was bad for both his life and livelihood. But since Alicia couldn't even remember him, she wouldn't know if he would on not. That meant he had a golden opportunity to extort Alicia Kaya. While money would obviously be a good option, there was also the possibility of gaining an extra core. Even just holding it over her head and using her influence whenever he needed it would be good. He didn't even need to risk blackmailing her directly; the officials he signed the confidentiality agreement with would definitely try to buy his silence if he showed them the agreement had been made null.

A sinister smile filled his face as he thought about how irritated Alicia would be. If he was lucky, Erin Kaya would hear about it and Alicia would get pulled back into manufacturing for another few years; a grown woman in her late thirties getting grounded.

With the strange smile, combined with his unhealthy appearance, when Savannah deployed out to the arena, she did so while looking slightly worried.

With the starting signal, it was clear that the fight was set to be a close one. Savannah’s rifle slashed forward and narrowly missed; the bayonet acting like a spear-tip. As the blade turned in an instant and darted towards Sara once again the metal shield deflected the blow. But while the shield moved the blade out of the way, it lined the barrel cleanly with a wing, a shot that Sav didn't hesitate to take.

While Sara's flight was momentarily disrupted, Sav pivoted her weapon along the shield to slam the shoulder rest against Sara's chest. While it caused very little damage to the rig, it definitely hurt the pilot. After that, something seemed to click in Sara's mind, and the rest of the first round was spent avoiding making close contact with Sav. It was clear that Sara had the disadvantage in a melee, so she avoided it. But without a ranged weapon, that meant defence was the sole option available. With her opponent only defending, it became far harder for Savannah’s attacks to land with any impact. A few bullets hit hard, but not in any place that would impact the later rounds.

The first round ended with a victory based on points. No surprises, it went to Sav. The real test would start in five minutes, when parts were switched out and plans were made. It was in the moments of preparation that Jeff thought of a devious and completely unethical way to gain an advantage.

“Hay Sam,” the message read, “can you get your pilot to look for her mother.”