- Mydell Tech

"Do you think that will be the last we'll see of them?" Joel asked Gus on the way up the stairs from the Pit. He had thrown Connor over his shoulder, and carried him as easily as someone would carry a bag.

"I doubt it. I put him down the last time if you remember, and that didn't stop him then," Gus responded. "Besides, having an enemy here will be good for us."

"You think so? Why?"

"Because it gives us experience fighting someone. They might let us beat each other senseless in an underground fighting ring, but I doubt the officers here will let one of their students unjustifiably die at the hands of another, nevermind an entire group dying. We won't have that guarantee out there, so it's best to make the most of the opportunity."

"Did you plan for this to happen or something? Is that why you went against him in the exam?"

Gus scoffed at his question. "You give me too much credit. No, I only went against him because it made sense in the moment. There was no need to take a position further back when we could simply use it as an insurance in case they decided to throw too many at us."

"Can you blame me, though? I mean, you're the son of Andrew Braye. Of course I'm going to think that you planned for this to happen!" Joel exclaimed. Seeing Gus's face at the mention of his father, Joel apologised.

"Nah, I wasn't thinking that far ahead. If I was, I would never have become Squad Leader."

Luckily for them, the medical room Gus had been in after their first combat lesson was open, even that early in the morning.

As it turns out, they were required to have someone there at all times, likely due to the presence of the Pit. It made sense, given that people could seriously get hurt down there, depending on who was fighting, but it was not something Gus had expected.

They had returned to the Pit, and stayed there for some time after their three fights, only leaving when others showed up for practice before their lessons. Since they wanted to get some practice in, Gus felt it was only fair to Joel that he went a few rounds with him while they had the time. It was fairly beneficial for Gus as well, as it taught him something new about the system.

In situations such as this, and presumably the games, defeat yielded no experience to him. A slightly bitter thing to learn, especially with a mouth full of blood, yet a necessary lesson nonetheless. It wasn't all bad, though, as Gus walked away with another 75 EXP from their small session.

Due to the dark conditions in there, with no way to tell the time, the two ended up running over how long they had intended to stay there for. Realising this, the two rushed home in an attempt to make their early class.

As they ran, Gus received a surprise message from the system.

*For training with a member of your squad, you have earned a reward.*

*Reward: [5] Leadership points.*

'Okay, not bad,' Gus thought. 'Maybe I'll have to force more of them into more regular training.'

Despite their best efforts, they were still late to their first lesson. And, as luck would have it, it was their first history-corporation class that was not simply shilling for Solus Supplies purely because of their sponsorship of the academy. Instead, likely due to their coverage of the Repeater a couple of days prior, as well as the coverage of the Sidekick yesterday, a small, military-grade sidearm Gus remembered nothing about, they were covering their first actually relevant corporation: Mydell Tech.

Mydell started off as a medical company, designing components used in multiple medical tools. They were fairly small scale, producing products that were all smaller than an infant's fist on fabrication technology that was outdated by some years. Then, one day, they flipped and went from the business of saving lives to the business of ending them.

Perhaps understanding the threat of what lay in the stars as humanity began its expansion, or perhaps merely seeking to increase profits in a more financially vibrant market, the higher ups of the company decided to shift their focus to manufacturing weaponry. After months of hard trial and error, they finally pushed out their first product. After that was found to be riddled with issues, they tinkered with the design until they produced their flagship weapon, the MT-11 Repeater.

Now, they are a premier company of humanity, and act as a shining example to all budding entrepreneurs across the stars. Not only is their success story one of the classic tales of the underdog making it big, but in all known records, there is no mention of them ever being involved in some kind of negative behaviour. No tax fraud, no scandals involving the board of directors, no drama at all. These two things combined to make Mydell Tech the mascot for corporate success, and made Frank Mydell a whole lot of money.

Many of their products are widely used, mostly in the private sector in comparison to the public military Gus was now a member of. The reasoning for this was obvious. In the public sector, where funding was not an issue, there was no need to save and buy the cheaper option. They were still used for things such as academies, where high-tech weapons were not needed, but for the most part the human military preferred not to use them. As for the private sector, where expenditure had a much more prominent impact on the bottom line of an individual, finding a fully functioning weapon for cheap was ideal.

It was not just the weapons that were designed this way. In recent times, Mydell have expanded from weapons to include vehicles, each with the common traits of speed and light armour. They were made this way to be able to incorporate the cheap philosophy that Mydell Tech had grown to adopt.

Currently, Mydell had almost complete control over the market of cheap, reliable weapons.

At the end of the class, they were surprised to see Jet Kleen waiting outside. They weren't supposed to see him for another four hours, when they had his class.

"Gus," he said, spotting Gus leaving class. "A word, if you will."