Chapter 6

Loyd didn't sleep very much that night as he was busy designing Jim's new CTAS with the head technician who had found them in the mess hall.

"Wait, if we uncoil the muscle strands then they won't have as much rigidity," the technician said confused as to what Loyd was trying to do.

"But you have a clockwise twist in them. What if we braided the muscle strands?" Loyd put his new muscle strand into the simulator and watched as it started running his tests.

"You increase the pulling power and rigidity by nearly threefold. However, the superstructure can't cope with the increased strain," the technician said rubbing his chin.

The new arm had shattered under the massive increase in power. As Loyd started working on this new problem, Jim made his way into the research and development lab.

"Yo, Loyd, Doctor Borya, how's it going?" Jim came over to the sim table and watched his miniature CTAS lift a transport shuttle designed for twin deployment. "How the hell did you pull that off?!"

He leaned closer to get a better look as his CTAS's joints started to fail. The massive shuttle crushed the miniature and the simulation reset.

"That's problematic now ain't it?"

"Yes well, Loyd and I have been working quite hard on improving the structure of your CTAS almost all night. Leave it to me and the simulator and I promise I'll have it finished by the time your first match starts. Now go get some sleep." The Doctor grabbed Loyd by the scruff of his neck and pulled him away from the sim table.

"Alright, I'm going."

Loyd knocked the doctor's hand off his back and headed for the door, stopping and turning back to the doctor, a look of triumph on his face.

"What if we use the calcium crystals?"

Borya's face lit up as both returned to the sim table.

"What about the calcium crystal? I thought it was too brittle to be used for anything?" Jim came back over to the table and watched as Loyd and the doctor coated his CTAS's skeleton in a layer of the calcium crystal and restarted the simulation.

"Come on now, if this doesn't work, I don't know what will." They watched as Jim's CTAS lifted the shuttle over its head and waited.

"It's passed the failure point now!"

They waited another minute holding their breaths before the doctor and Loyd smiled up at each other.

"It worked. We made a CTAS that can lift a shuttle."

Both were ecstatic at their newfound discovery.

"Alright, now go get some sleep before the tournament or I'm gonna have to give you some night-night shots."

The doc waved at them as they left and Loyd ran straight for his barracks. His dorm mom, Argo, was waiting.

"What took you so long?! The sun comes up in three hours!" Argo stood over Loyd in her bathrobe.

"Uhm, working on my CTAS with Doc Borya in the research lab." Loyd shrank away from Argo as she leaned in closer to him.

"You are going to regret keeping me awake for this long. Now get to bed before I make sure you won't ever be able to sleep again!"

She turned and fell onto her own bed as Loyd walked to his. He wouldn't sleep, he never could. Something with his lung implants kept him from being able to sleep but the general had told him to try and meditate during the night to rest his brain or something like that.

xX Four hours later. Xx

Loyd tried his damnedest to run faster before the tournament started.

"I'm gonna be late if I don't hurry up!"

There were still kids walking through the door as he got there. Jim, who had been waiting with three others, was standing just to the side of the line.

"Hey, Jim!" Loyd ran over to them waving. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing much, just the rules on how they plan on doing this tournament." Jim smiled as he led the rest of the group through the doors.

"Oh, and say hello to the rest of the team."

Loyd turned to look at the other misfits from each group. He turned back when they entered the hall which was being set up differently today.

"They are moving each five-man teams pods next to each other for the next few days so we can learn to fight in small hit squads. Oh, and your design for my new CTAS is gonna kick everyone's ass."

Jim hopped into his pod as it was refit to the new plug-in site and waited for the others to do the same.

"So, they threw out the old corps and made us a bunch of five-man squads? Sounds fun. When do we start?"

Loyd hopped into his pod which hadn't been moved, thanks to his need for a specialized plug-in point.

"Hey, what's with the medal in here? Jim, how did you sign us in?" Loyd had a feeling he already knew what had happened.

"What was that, Commander? Couldn't hear you, I was initiating the link could you repeat that?"

"You didn't…"

"Oh, but he did sign you up as our commander. Nice to meet you, Loyd. My big bro has told me a lot about what you can do and I look forward to fighting by your side. I'm Madeline by the way." A young girl's face popped up on his view screen.

"Alright, what do you run in?"

Loyd could have memorized all two-thousand loadouts, but it was easier to ask.

"Oh, I run support normally but I think I'm gonna pull out my siege gun today." She smiled to herself as the next person finished booting up.

"Yo, so you must be the infamous Loyd? I'm Cookie, and Cream is my lil' sis."

Cream popped in when Cookie mentioned her and waved at the screen.

"She doesn't talk much. So, I heard something about loadouts? I run a bruiser build and Cream is my backup dervish."

Jim finally joined in.

"So, I'll be running that new type you designed for me. It's kinda like a bruiser though and every one of us is short-ranged, so what are you gonna be running, Loyd?"

"Well, I like my siege gun but I think I'm gonna go medic till we can figure out how to work together."

The alarm signaled the start of the simulation and the five misfits waited for the system to choose their first opponents. The roster cycled through group after group until it came to rest on The Banshees.

"And who might we have here?" Jim asked.

Loyd's group walked through the gate into a Roman styled arena scaled up for their CTAS's. They spotted The Banshees entering through their gate.

"That's Argo and her elites! Why did we have to fight them in the first match?!" Jim moaned as Loyd chuckled.

"And what's so funny?" demanded Jim.

Looking closer Jim started to laugh himself. The Banshees were also all close-range, too.

"Two dervishes, two bruisers and that big one in the back looks like a siege gunner. They have the same setup as us mostly," Jim cried and the rest of the group laughed too.

A timer descended from above the arena and started counting down to the start of the match.

"So, Commander, what's the plan?" Cookie asked.

"Knowing Argo, she's gonna come at us fast and hard, while her bruisers and dervishes try to split us into two groups. So, Cookie, Cream, you take the bruiser and dervish on the right. Jim, you get the honor of kicking Argo's ass. That leaves the left side to me and Madeline to take care of."

Everyone nodded and got ready for the timer to count down when Loyd charged.

"Go now!"

The timer had not counted down yet and Loyd's movement had stunned The Banshees who were not expecting such ferocity and speed from a CTAS that looked like it had big stilts for legs.

Jim was the second to move and his CTAS looked just as weird as Loyd's. Except for the hammer, his CTAS was completely white with little more than the skeleton and muscles of a normal CTAS to decrease weight and increase speed. The rest of the misfits jumped into action as soon as Loyd made his second step towards the Banshees. Madeline fired her gun at the ground in front of Loyd's target, blinding them so they didn't see him till his knife plunged through the cloud of dirt. Cookie picked Cream up and threw her into their targets. Cream landed with her feet planted firmly in the upper torsos of their targets, knocking them back as Cookie caught up with her and took one of their arms off with her cleaver.

Jim missed his first swing against Argo who had managed to react faster than the rest of her group but did not miss his second when he activated the booster on his hammerhead. The impact sent Argo flying into the hall that her group had come out of her cockpit completely destroyed.

Madeline had charged a second shot by the time Loyd finished stabbing the first of their targets, and fired as the other bared down on him. The shot hit! It tore the enemy CTAS in half at the waist; its weapon falling harmlessly to the ground.

Cookie decapitated the dervish she had taken the arm off of. Cream stood on top of the last remaining enemy, before activating a pile driver, designed for holding artillery types in place, in the back of her leg. The timer hit zero as the last Banshee fell and the misfits were declared the winners.

"That only took ten seconds good job, guys," Loyd proudly stated.

"It would've been nice to know we weren't waiting for the timer," Madeline said looking upset.

Jim nearly fell over laughing, "Did you see how far she flew?! I dub this hammer the smacker of Argo!"

He held his hammer high as the world dissolved around them, getting ready for their next match.

"You use it well for an assault gunner," Cookie commented, looking rather proud of herself and Cream just sat there smiling.

"Well, remember that probably won't work twice. But if it does, we've won this tournament and all the spoils," Loyd explained, turning as Argo and her Banshees spawned back in. "What's this?"

Argo looked pissed but was quiet.

"The tournament rules state that we would go in as five-man squads and every victory we won, we would get the people we defeated to join us, until four new commanders are chosen." Jim looked pleased with himself.

"Wait, so I can be a full-fledged corps commander when we're done?! That's awesome!" Loyd cheered.