Graduation

Tobi had been mediocre his whole life, he was always just average. He never failed but never excelled, not that he hadn't tried on several occasions he had spent months studying to no avail. Tobi was just average and he would always probably continue to be that way.

"Tobi Greyson with a finishing score of 70 out of 100"

Tobi stood his peers, classmates and others from his school clapped politely he didn't get any cheering like some of the others in his class.

"Another average " he sighed as he made his way to the stage in his school of almost 1000 the senior years where the only ones attending this ceremony and of those three age groups. Only a small selections of the two youngest years where in attendance leaving two thirds of the hall mostly empty except for the more shy families of which his was one. Huddled In the back left corner of the hall was the Greyson family even among the poor families there his set a low bar. none of them wore a C.M.D, compact mobile device, which 90% of all citizens of earth wore. Tobi has received his as a gift from his school as part of his scholarship.

Arden academy offered scholarships to those with high aptitude for bio-neurological link controllers the most common way to control heavy machinery. This was one of the only things Tobi had anything above average in his aptitude was over 90% which was far above the norm of 60%. This was the only reason Tobi was even graduating today as he got near perfect scores on his practical tests these where more heavily weighed when giving his final evaluation.

As Tobi took the stage he had a feeling of happiness wash over him he was finally on his way to leaving the first level of earth. Over 1400 years ago the planet earth even with its growing colonies on mars and Venus was becoming rapidly over populated as a result the planets government at the time created artificial layers around the planet each being 5km heigh. In total there was five levels the first of which was excavated into the earth and the materials from this built the top three levels above the surface of the planet. Initially people from anywhere could live on any Level but as time passed more wealthy people bought the areas closest to the top until the poorest could only live in the underground layer of the planet.

Tobi was lost in thought, so much so he didn't notice the next name wasn't called after his own as he took his place beside the principal. The principal was from the fourth layer the same layer the academy was built on. Mech academies built on the fourth layer where rare but not as rare as those on the top layer. There where only two mech academies on the top layers but even with perfect grades and aptitude you would only just get into the academies. these academies where only available to those from the top layer or with a ridiculous amount of wealth.

"Mr Greyson has caught the attention of a young mech designer from the fifth level and has been given a grant of $2000 and a private mech designed by that designer who has wished to remain anonymous"

shock hit Tobi like a bullet that sum of money was enormous even a few hundred dollars was a decent amount of money for him. With $2000 he could buy a house on the fourth floor and still hav a quarter of that left. The mech was the cherry on top though a standard military grade mech was $5-10000 and was usually supplied by an employer, be that the government or another more shady group.

"Congratulations Mr Greyson don't waste this opportunity " the principal said to Tobi as he shook his had. His mouth was nearly on the floor ideas of how to spend that money where going of in his head like fireworks.

"Thank you sir I won't wast this" Tobi said as the principal stepped back to the lectern. Tobi left the stage with a huge smile on his face murmurs where running through the crowd as he descended the steps. This only added to the giddy feeling in his stomach, until he saw his family sitting in the bac corner standing in disbelief. His smile faded, he wasn't greedy but he was not willing to share with his family least of all his parents.

After taking his seat he reached around to the back of the metal band on his neck tapping a black square on it re-activated his C.M.D. The basic console poped up in his vision he made his way to the personal section and logged into his bank account and sitting there was the sum total of his savings in $2004.89 and a notice for the physical storage of a mech and two full sets of replacement parts along with its schematics one last thing had been added to his account a digital letter. His curiosity latched onto the letter more firework like thoughts went of in his head who was his mysterious benefactor and why had they chosen him, he opened the letter.

All it said was

HAVE FUN !!!